VENTURES 

OF  A 
RESHMAN 


—  E     LYN  C  H     WILLIAM  S 

t.' 


The  ADVENTURES 
OF  A  FRESHMAN 


BOOKS  BY  JESSE  LYNCH  WILLIAMS 

PUBLISHED  BY  CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

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^ 


THE    FIRST    ENCOUNTER    WITH   THE   SOPHOMORES. 
'  You  big,  green  Freshman  from  Squeedunk.    .    .    .    We'll  give  ybu  just 
five  seconds  to  take  off  that  ugly  hat,  and  if  you  don't '—Page  4. 


The  ADVENTURES 
OF  A  FRESHMAN 


By 
JESSE   LYNCH  WILLIAMS 

Author  of  "Princeton  Stories"  and  "The 
Stolen  Story  and  other  Newspaper  Stories'* 


CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

597-599   Fifth    Avenue   ::   New   York 


Copyright,  i«99,  ty 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons 


To 

HENRY   MEADE   WILLIAMS 

A   SUB-FRESHMAN 


948193 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I.  The  First  Day  at  College 1 

II.  The  "  Big,  Green  Freshman  from  Squee- 

dunk" 9 

III.  The  Great  Sophomore -Freshman  Rush  .    .  19 

IV.  Welcome  and  Unwelcome  Visitors    ...  42 
V.   Hazing 56 

VI.  Work— Play— "Procs" 66 

VII.  The  Last  Hazing  of  "The  Meek  Butt  of 

all  Classes" 88 

VIII.  How  it  Feels  to  be  a  Hero 110 

IX.  A  Question  of  Money 125 

X.  How  he  Stayed  in  College 137 

XI.  The  Trouble  with  being  a  Hero  .    .    .    .153 

vii 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  page 

XII.  Serving  Two  Masters 159 

XIII.  The  Last  Chance 176 

XIV.  "  Home  from  College  " 186 

XV.  The  End  of  it .  193 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

From  drawings  by  Fletcher  Ransom 


The  First  Encounter  with  the  Sophomores     .    .    .  Frontispiece 

"You  big,  green  Freshman  from  Squeedunk.  .  .  . 
We'll  give  you  just  five  seconds  to  take  off  that  ugly  hat, 

and  if  you  don't " 

Facing 
page 

After  the  Rush 40 

In  walked  .  .  .  the  little  Sophomore,  and  behind 
him  a  very  big  Sophomore.  Young  recognized  him  as 
the  one  .  .  . 

Hazing 58 

"Now  both  sit  up  on  your  haunches  and  chatter 
awhile." 

The  Hero  of  the  Bell-Clapper 70 

Lee  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  popular  men 
in  the  class. 

"Meek  Butt  of  all  Classes!" 108 

Before  curfew  rang  in  Old  North  at  the  close  of  that 
day,  the  whole  college  was  talking  about  it. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing 
page 

"The  Invincibles" 118 

They  had  a  dignified  negro  waiter,  and  they  dined  in 
the  evening  and  it  all  seemed  very  fine  and  luxurious. 


2  A.M 158 

However,  after  saying  good  night  ...  he  would 
sneak  off  to  his  room,  tie  a  wet  towel  around  his  head, 
and  pole.  .  .  . 

The  Meeting 186 

"I  don't  know,  mother,"  he  said  slowly,  "I  don't 
know.  ." 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A 
FRESHMAN 

CHAPTER  I 

THE   FIRST   DAY    AT   COLLEGE 

"  Hi,  there !  you  big  Freshman,  take  off 
your  hat — yes,  we're  talking  to  you — take 
off  your  hat  to  the  class  above  you — stop, 
don't  try  to  get  by,  my  sober-faced  young 
friend.  That  would  not  be  nice  of  you." 

At  first  the  Freshman  did  not  understand 
that  he  was  the  one  addressed,  and,  when  he 
did,  his  first  startled  impulse  was  to  hurry  by 
and  pretend  not  to  notice  them. 

But  he  could  not  now ;  the  walk  was 
blocked  by  this  group  of  four  fellows  who 
were  now  calmly  smiling  at  him  in  an 
amused  way,  as  if  he  were  a  curious  child, 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A   FRESHMAN 

thdugh  really  he  was  as  old  as  any  of  them. 
The  only*  way  he  could  avoid  them  was  by 
turning  back  toward  the  street,  and  this  he 
would  not  do.  So  he  stood  his  ground  and 
looked  straight  back  at  them. 

"  Well,  you  seem  to  enjoy  looking ;  how 
do  you  like  us,  Freshman?"  asked  one  of 
the  Sophomores,  taking  his  pipe  out  of  his 
mouth.  Three  of  them  were  smoking  pipes 
and  all  four  wore  those  queer  striped-flannel 
coats  of  broad  orange  and  black  that  had 
attracted  his  attention  when  he  first  got  off 
the  train.  Afterward  he  learned  that  they 
were  called  blazers. 

They  were  close  beside  him  now  and 
they  were  looking  him  up  and  down.  One 
of  them  remarked  to  the  others,  "  O,  ye 
shades  of  Aaron  Burr,  but  this  is  a  green 
one.  What's  your  name,  Freshman  ?  " 

Then  one  of  the  others  interrupted  in  a 
loud  tone,  "Take  off  your  hat,  Freshman." 

It  was  the  same  high  voice  that  had 
broken  in  upon  him  at  the  first.  Its  owner 
was  the  shortest  of  the  lot,  but  he  smoked 
the  longest  pipe. 


THE   FIRST   DAY   AT   COLLEGE 

"Take  off  your  hat,"  he  commanded, 
"  and  don't  look  so  sober.  We  aren't  going 
to  hurt  you." 

They  were  all  looking  at  him.  The  Fresh 
man  felt  himself  blushing ;  he  smiled  and 
tried  to  look  good-natured. 

"  I  wouldn't  smile  if  I  were  you,"  put 
in  one  of  the  others ;  "  your  teeth  aren't 


even." 


The  others  laughed  at  this,  but  the  small 
Sophomore  said,  "  Come,  wipe  away  that 
smile  and  take  off  your  hat,  I  tell  you." 

The  Freshman  stopped  smiling  and  looked 
up  across  the  campus  instead.  Two  men 
were  entering  an  old  brown  building,  busily 
talking,  their  arms  about  each  other's  shoul 
ders  ;  they  seemed  very  happy.  He  shifted 
from  one  foot  to  the  other. 

"  See  here,  Freshman,"  cried  the  little 
Sophomore,  in  an  amazed  tone,  "  didn't  you 
hear  me  tell  you  to  take  off  your  hat  ?  "  He 
had  a  large,  sneering  mouth,  and  he  con 
stantly  tried  to  say  sarcastic  things.  He  held 
his  chin  elevated,  as  if  to  make  himself  a 
little  taller,  and  the  big  Freshman,  looking 

3 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A    FRESHMAN 

down  at  him,  thought  how  he  would  like  to 
pick  him  up  and  spank  him.  The  Freshman 
had  no  intention  of  taking  off  his  hat. 

Perhaps  the  Sophomore  knew  what  he  was 
thinking ;  at  any  rate,  he  stepped  up  close 
to  him,  and  shaking  a  finger  under  his  face, 
he  snarled  out,  "  You  big,  green  Freshman 
from  Squeedunk,  you're  the  freshest  one 
I've  seen  yet.  We'll  give  you  just  five  sec 
onds  to  take  off  that  ugly  hat,  and  if  you 
don't " 

"  Look  out — look  out !  there  comes  Matt," 
in  a  quick,  scared  voice,  one  of  the  others 
interrupted. 

Matthew  Goldie,  the  famous  old  proctor, 
was  sauntering  down  the  walk  wriggling  his 
fingers,  as  was  his  habit,  and  looking  appar 
ently  in  the  other  direction.  This  v  Tas  also 
his  habit. 

Even  in  those  days,  before  hazing  was 
abolished  by  the  undergraduate  vote,  when 
it  was  thought,  even  by  the  Faculty,  that 
hazing  had  its  redeeming  features,  it  was  a 
rather  reckless  proceeding  for  a  crowd  of 
Sophomores  to  take  a  Freshman  in  hand  on 

4 


THE   FIRST   DAY  AT   COLLEGE 

the  front  campus  in  broad  daylight  and  in 
plain  sight  of  the  Dean's  house. 

The  small  Sophomore's  pipe  was  not  two 
inches  from  the  Freshman's  face  when  the 
warning  was  sounded  and  Matt  Goldie  was 
coming  straight  down  the  walk  toward  him, 
and  yet,  to  the  surprise  of  all,  he  went  on 
in  the  same  earnest  manner,  only  now  he 
was  saying : 

"  I  tell  you,  my  dear  sir,  you  will  thank 
me  all  your  life  if  you  join  Whig  Hall. 
Why,  there  is  no  comparing  the  two  liter, 
ary  societies.  Now,  just  look  at  the  rec 
ords  of  the  past  years  :  In  the  first  place, 
Whig  Hall  was  founded  by  President  James 

Madison  when  he  was  a  student  here  " 

and  then  the  small  Sophomore  went  glibly 
on  with  the  arguments  the  Whig  men  usu 
ally  employ  when  claiming  superiority  to 
their  rival  society,  Clio  Hall. 

Matthew  Goldie  had  approached,  come 
even  with  the  group  and  passed  by,  oblivious 
of  its  existence,  apparently.  But  the  Sopho 
mores  knew  he  was  not  so  oblivious  as  he 
looked,  so  they  began  to  move  off. 

5 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

"  Good-by,  Freshman,"  they  said,  laugh 
ingly,  "  sorry  we  have  to  leave  you  so  soon. 
Come  on,  Channing." 

But  Channing  lingered  a  moment. 
"  What's  your  name  ?  "  he  demanded. 

The  Freshman  thought  it  was  none  of  this 
fellow's  business,  but  he  wanted  to  show  he 
was  not  afraid.  "  Young,"  he  said. 

"  Your  initials  ?  " 

"  My  name  is  William  Young,  if  you  want 
to  know,"  answered  the  Freshman,  decisively. 

"Willie,  eh?" 

Those  of  the  others  who  were  near  enough 
to  hear  laughed  at  this. 

"Well,  you  are  rather  old  to  be  called 
Young — Willie  Young,  especially.  Hereaf 
ter  you  shall  be  known  as  *  Deacon  Young."1 

"  Aw,  come  on,  Chan,"  called  the  others. 

"  All  right,"  said  Channing,  but  he  turned 
to  the  Freshman  as  he  started  off  and  re 
marked,  threateningly,  "We'll  meet  again, 
you  big,  green  Freshman." 

"  I  hope  so,"  promptly  returned  Young, 
"you  little,  mouthy  Sophomore." 

And  this  was  the  very  worst  thing  he  could 

6 


THE   FIRST   DAY  AT  COLLEGE 

have  said,  as  he  was  afterward  taught,  if  he 
had  wanted  to  avoid  hazing.  He  did  not 
know  that  the  best  way  to  get  along  with  the 
Sophomores  was  to  take  their  initiating — not 
humbly,  which  was  almost  worse  than  getting 
mad  about  it — but  laughingly  and  good-nat 
uredly,  for  as  soon  as  he  acknowledged  the 
fact  that  he  was  only  a  Freshman  and  recog 
nized  that  he  belonged  to  the  lowest  of  four 
grades  of  college  importance,  they  would  let 
him  alone. 

But  Young  was  not  of  a  sort  readily  to 
acknowledge  subordination  to  anybody,  and 
he  had  never  been  hazed  and  he  knew  very 
little  about  college  custom  and  all  that,  be 
cause  he  had  been  a  college  man  less  than 
twenty-four  hours  and  the  tray  of  his  trunk 
was  still  unpacked. 

It  was  Wednesday  afternoon,  the  first  day 
of  the  term,  and  he  was  on  his  way  to  chapel 
to  attend  the  opening  exercises  of  the  col 
lege  year,  the  first  real  college  duty  of  his 
life,  and  he  had  almost  reached  the  quad 
rangle  when  he  was  interrupted  by  the  Soph 
omores  and  the  disagreeable  voice  which 

7 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

called,  "  Hi,  there,  Freshman,"  at  him,  and 
which  he  thought  he  would  never  forget. 

And  now  he  went  on  up  the  stone  walk 
under  the  tall  elms,  wiping  his  brow  and 
telling  himself  that  he  was  not  homesick,  but 
that  he  did  not  propose  to  let  anybody  talk 
to  him  that  way,  even  if  he  was  green  and 
from  the  country,  and  he^  would  show  them. 

He  was  from  the  country,  to  be  sure,  but 
that  had  nothing  to  do  with  it.  He  was 
guyed  because  he  was  a  Freshman. 

He  was  from  the  country,  and  he  had 
come  here  to  get  a  college  education,  and 
he  had  worked  hard  to  come.  He  meant  to 
make  the  best  of  his  opportunities,  and  you 
could  see  that  by  the  energetic  way  he  strode 
through  the  quadrangle  and  up  the  broad 
path  to  chapel  and  took  his  place  with  two 
hundred  others,  who  also  were  Freshmen  and 
as  green,  many  of  them,  as  he  was,  and  trying 
just  as  hard  not  to  show  it,  though  he  did  not. 
know  that.  He  thought  they  were  upper- 
classmen  and  knew  ever  so  much,  and  were 
looking  at  him. 

8 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  "BIG,  GREEN  FRESHMAN  FROM  SQUEE- 


DUNK" 


THERE  were  very  important  reasons  why 
this  particular  Freshman  had  made  up  his 
mind  to  do  well  at  college.  He  had  done 
very  well  at  the  High  School  out  at  home, 
and  it  was  one  of  the  best  in  all  Illinois. 
But  that  was  not  the  reason,  nor  had  he 
graduated  first  in  his  class,  indeed  ;  one  of  the 
girls  did,  as  usual,  though,  to  be  sure,  Young 
had  done  outside  studying  with  the  minis 
ter  and  that  was  a  handicap.  He  had  a  dif 
ferent  sort  of  reason  for  wanting  to  do  well, 
now  he  was  here  at  last. 

He  could  recall,  as  vividly  as  though  it 
were  yesterday,  how  his  father  looked  the 
time  he  said:  "And  I  tell  you  now,  once 
and  forever,  I  ain't  going  to  spend  my  hard- 
earned  money  making  a  dude  of  any  son 

9 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A   FRESHMAN 

of  mine  ;  and  that's  all  I  have  to  say  about 
it.  On  the  first  of  next  month  you're  going 
to  get  to  work  in  the  bank  ;  and  you  ought 
to  be  glad  of  it  Few  farmers'  sons  have 
such  chances." 

Young  remembered  how  sarcastic  seemed 
his  father's  answer  to  the  question,  "  Won't 
you  just  lend  me  the  money,  father  ?  I'll 
pay  it  back  with  interest,  in  time  ?  " 

"  Lend  you  money  ! — where's  your  col 
lateral,  hey  ?  "  and  Mr.  Young  laughed. 

"Then  that  is  your  final  decision,  father?" 

"  Final  as  I  can  make.  If  you  go  to  col 
lege  you  pay  your  own  way.  Good-night. 
I  guess  that  settles  it." 

Until  this  offer  of  the  place  in  the  bank 
came,  just  after  Will's  graduation  from  the 
High  School,  his  father  had  only  said, 
"  What's  the  sense  of  going  to  college  ? 
You  can't  make  any  more  money  by  it." 
And  Will  had  quietly  gone  on  with  his 
Greek  lessons,  not  doubting  that  his  father 
would  give  his  consent  in  the  end.  But 
now  it  was  :  "  This  is  too  good  a  chance  to 
miss,  Will — why,  you'll  soon  make  a  rich 


10 


"THE  FRESHMAN  FROM  SQUEEDUNK" 

man  of  yourself.  Of  course,  you  must  take 
it.  What's  the  use  of  having  your  father 
a  director  of  the  Farmers'  National  Bank, 
any  way  ?  You'll  soon  get  over  your  fool- 
notions.  Charlie  hasn't  any  fool  notions 
about  '  higher  education.'  He's  my  right- 
hand  man  on  the  farm."  And  the  farm  was 
one  of  the  most  prosperous  in  the  county. 

Will  knew  his  father  and  said  nothing 
more,  and  on  July  ist  took  the  place  in 
the  bank  and  began  to  work  at  $5  a  week. 
But  he  did  not  get  over  his  fool  notions. 

You  see,  ever  since  Young  could  remem 
ber,  he  had  dreamed  and  planned  about  go 
ing  to  college,  and  what  is  more  he  had  put 
in  a  great  many  hours  of  good,  solid  study 
with  the  minister  during  the  past  years  pre 
paring  himself  for  it,  and  in  consequence  it 
was  often  'way  after  the  dark  by  the  time  he 
had  driven  out  home  and  had  finished  his 
"  chores."  And  he  did  not  propose  to  let  all 
that  work  count  for  nothing.  He  had  made 
up  his  mind  to  get  a  university  education. 

It  was  out  of  the  question   now  to  study 

all  summer  and  enter  the  next  fall,  but  the 

ii 


THE   ADVENTURES  OF  A   FRESHMAN 

minister  told  him   he  was   still  young  ;  he 
could  enter  the  following  year. 

"Your  boy  Will's  catching  on  quicker 
than  Henry  Johnson  or  any  of  the  young 
men  that  ever  worked  under  me  yet.'r 
That's  what  the  cashier  said  to  Mr.  Young. 

"That  means  he's  getting  over  his  fool 
notions,"  thought  Mr.  Young.  Really  it 
meant  that  he  still  had  them.  Will  never 
mentioned  the  word  college  to  his  father 
again  ;  and  to  those  of  his  old  friends  who 
said,  "  Oh,  so  you  aren't  going  East  after 
all  :  why's  that  ?  "  he  merely  replied  in  effect 
that  that  was  his  business,  and  bent  over  the 
ledger  again. 

He  knew  that  most  of  the  town  was  talk 
ing  and  laughing  about  him  because  from 
the  time  he  first  announced  (with  a  some 
what  superior  air,  perhaps)  what  he  intended 
to  do  after  leaving  the  High  School,  more 
than  one  of  them  thought,  and  said,  that  it 
was  a  queer  idea  for  Will  Young  to  go  to 
college  when  he  did  not  want  to  be  a  preacher 
or  a  professional  man ;  not  so  very  many 


12 


"THE    FRESHMAN    FROM   SQUEEDUNK" 

boys  went  to  college  from  that  part  of  the 
country. 

But  Will  did  not  worry  about  that  very 
much.  He  did  not  have  time.  He  was 
working  every  day  in  the  bank  from  eight 
o'clock  in  the  morning  until  five  or  six  in  the 
evening — until  nine  or  ten  at  night,  some 
times,  on  the  first  of  the  month — and  was 
besides  doing  all  the  chores  for  Miss  Wil- 
kins,  with  whom  he  boarded.  And  that  was 
not  all  the  work  he  did,  either.  Those  who 
passed  by  Miss  Wilkins's  house  late  at  night 
generally  noticed  a  light  in  the  little  third- 
story  window  long  after  all  the  other 
boarders'  rooms  were  dark.  And  the  nights 
he  was  not  studying  in  his  room  he  was 
reciting  at  the  minister's. 

It  is  no  easy  thing  to  save  money  on  $5 
a  week,  and  pay  board  and  buy  clothes  and 
incidentals  out  of  it  besides.  That  was  the 
reason  he  did  the  chores  for  Miss  Wil- 
kins.  He  got  his  board  for  that,  and  he 
earned  it. 

Out  of  the  first  month's  salary  Will  saved 
$10.  Fifty  per  cent,  of  earnings  saved  is  not 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

a  bad  proportion.  Out  of  the  second  month's 
earnings  he  saved  $25. 

That  may  sound  impossible,  but  you  see 
they  had  raised  his  salary  to  $10  a  week  as 
they  promised  to  do  as  soon  as  he  had  made 
himself  worth  it.  Besides,  Mr.  Young  was 
a  director. 

It  was  very  slow  and  sometimes  it  seemed 
very  discouraging,  and  he  did  not  know  how 
he  could  have  succeeded  if  it  had  not  been 
for  the  Sunday  afternoon  talks  with  his 
mother,  who  was  with  him  from  the  start  in 
the  project ;  and  for  the  minister,  who  used  to 
say,  "You  seem  to  think  a  fellow  must  be  a 
millionaire  to  go  to  college." 

The  minister  had  a  frank,  friendly  unstilted 
manner  of  talking,  that  made  some  of  the 
older  people  shake  their  heads  and  think  him 
unclerical. 

"  Why,  there  are  hundreds  of  fellows,"  the 
minister  said,  "  paying  their  own  way  through 
every  year,  and  if  you  can't  do  it  I'm  mis 
taken  in  you.  That  is  one  reason,"  the  min 
ister  explained,  "though  not  the  most  im 
portant  one,  why  I  advised  you  to  go  to  a 

14 


"THE  FRESHMAN  FROM  SQUEEDUNK " 

large  college.  There  are  so  many  more  ways 
of  earning  money.  There  are  more  eating- 
clubs  to  be  managed  (and  all  the  manager 
has  to  do  is  collect  a  tableful  of  congenial 
fellows  and  then  he  gets  his  own  board  free). 
There  are  more  men  that  want  tutoring  at  a 
large  institution,  and  the  price  of  tutoring  is 
better,  too — (a  man  in  my  class  in  the  semi 
nary  used  to  get  $3  an  hour)  ;  and  there  are 
more  newspapers  to  correspond  for  and  shoe- 
stores  and  steam-laundries  and  railroads  to  act 
as  agents  for — why,  there  are  any  number  of 
ways  to  earn  money  if  you  only  look  out  for 
them.  And,  as  I  told  you  before,  the  college 
authorities  will  remit  your  tuition  if  you  show 
that  it  is  necessary  and  if,"  said  the  minister, 
smiling,  "  if  you  can  give  testimonials  of  high 
moral  character.  All  you  have  to  do  this 
year  is  to  make  enough  to  get  started  on,  and 
that's  what  you  are  rapidly  doing." 

One  day  after  Will  Young  had  been 
working  in  the  bank  for  nearly  a  year  his 
father  burst  into  the  kitchen.  "  Mother,"  he 
shouted  to  his  wife,  almost  excitedly,  "what 

15 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

do  you  think  ?  Will  is  going  to  resign  from 
the  bank  !  I  just  now  heard  it  in  town." 

"Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Young,  gently,  "I 
know." 

"  What  does  he  mean  by  it !  He  has  had 
his  salary  raised  twice  inside  of  a  year.  He'll 
be  made  assistant  cashier  soon.  Why,  the 
boy's  a  fool.  Does  he  expect  to  get  a  better 
place  up  in  Chicago  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Mrs.  Young.  "  He  only  went 
to  Chicago  on  his  vacation  to  take  his  ex 
aminations  for  college  and " 

"  For  college  !     Chicago  ! " 

"  And  to  buy  his  clothes — yes,  they  hold 
the  examinations  all  over  the  country."  Then 
she  went  on,  "  You  remember,  father,  you 
said  Will  could  go  if  he  earned  his  own 
money,  and  now " 

"  When  did  I  say  that  ?  "  thundered  Mr. 
Young  ;  and  then  the  storm  broke.  It  was 
rather  severe  while  it  lasted,  but  it  did  not 
last  as  long  as  she  had  feared  it  would.  Mr. 
Young  was  just,  and  he  had  to  acknowledge, 
inwardly,  that  Will  was  right  from  his  stand 
point,  though  it  was  a  sore  disappointment : 

16 


"THE  FRESHMAN  FROM  SQUEEDUNK" 

and  he  saw  no  reason  why  Will  should  be 
forgiven. 

14  We'll  see  how  long  you  stay  there,"  was 
what  Mr.  Young  said  in  bidding  Will  good- 
by.  He  knew  about  how  much  his  son  had 
been  able  to  save. 

"All  right,  sir,"  said  Will,  feeling  sorry 
his  father  would  not  give  his  approval  even 
now.  "  Good-by,  sir."  And  he  glanced  at  his 
mother  once  more  and  then  looked  away 
again,  and  the  train  pulled  out.  A  moment 
later  he  had  a  last,  distant  view  of  the  straight 
white  farmhouse,  as  the  cars  dashed  by,  and 
of  the  big  red  barn  with  white  trimmings,  and 
the  wind-brake  of  tall,  straight  poplars,  to  the 
north,  in  even  row,  planted  by  his  father's 
own  hand  before  Will  was  born  ;  he  saw 
their  tops  waving  in  the  breeze  as  they  were 
cut  off  from  view — and  all  that  seemed  years 
and  years  ago,  though,  in  reality,  it  was  only 
Monday,  the  day  before  yesterday,  and  here 
he  was  at  last,  actually  at  college  and  sitting 
in  chapel  listening  to  the  President's  kind 
words  of  welcome ;  and  feeling  somewhat 
important  at  being  one  of  those  particularly 

17 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

addressed  by  such  a  famous  and  learned  man 
and  feeling  very  proud  at  the  thought  that 
he  was  part  of  such  an  ancient  and  mighty 
seat  of  learning — and  hoping  that  the  small 
account  he  had  opened  at  the  Princeton 
Bank  was  going  to  tide  him  over  till  an 
opportunity  for  earning  money  turned  up. 

As  he  and  his  many  classmates  trooped 
forth  into  the  sunny  outdoors  again  some 
orange-and-black-bedecked  Sophomores  on 
the  steps  murmured,  "  right,  left,  right, 
left,"  in  time  to  their  footsteps,  and  then 
Will  Young  did  not  feel  so  proud  and  im 
portant. 

But  this  big,  green  Freshman  did  not  take 
off  his  hat  to  them  as  some  of  his  classmates 
did.  In  fact  his  hat  did  not  come  off  until 
the  evening  of  the  following  day — and  then 
not  quite  in  the  way  you  might  expect 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   GREAT   SOPHOMORE-FRESHMAN    RUSH 

FRESHMAN  YOUNG  had  an  experience  on 
the  second  night  of  his  college  course  that 
he  was  never  to  forget.  And  few  of  those 
who  shared  it  with  him  forgot  it,  and  not 
many  of  the  hundreds  of  other  men  that 
have  been  in  college  before  and  since  have 
forgotten  similar  experiences  of  their  own 
on  the  second  or  third  night  of  college  ex 
istence.  Not  one  of  them  would  care  to 
miss  it  if  he  had  it  to  do  over  again. 

He  was  in  his  room  going  over  for  the 
fifth  time  the  Latin  passages  in  Livy,  Book 
I.  The  recitation  came  the  first  thing  in 
the  morning.  That  meant  at  half-past  eight, 
immediately  after  chapel. 

His  room  was  on  the  third  story,  back, 
of  a  queer,  old-fashioned  house  in  a  still 
queerer,  old,  crooked  street  called  Canal 

19 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

Street,  because,  he  supposed,  it  led  down 
to  the  canal.  The  little  room  seemed  quite 
bare  and  cheerless,  but  he  did  not  mind  that. 
He  had  got  down  to  work  as  a  "  college 


man." 


That  day,  for  the  first  time,  he  had  met 
his  professors  in  the  classroom  along  with 
the  other  Freshmen  of  his  division.  He  was 
the  last  man  of  the  last  division,  because  his 
last  name  began  with  Y.  Later  on  in  the 
term,  when  they  were  to  be  divided  accord 
ing  to  rank,  he  would  not  be  in  the  last  div 
ision  ;  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  that. 
So  he  was  going  over  the  Livy  lesson  for 
the  fifth  time,  although  he  had  worked  it  all 
out  during  the  afternoon. 

Perhaps  there  was  another  reason  for 
keeping  his  mind  so  busy.  The  old  white 
farmhouse  with  the  well-trimmed  lawn  and 
the  evergreen  trees  in  front  and  the  tall, 
straight  wind-pump  to  the  west,  an'd  beyond 
that  the  long,  level  sweeps  of  rich  prairie 
acres,  all  seemed  very  far  away  to-night. 
"  I'm  not  homesick — of  course  not,"  he  told 
himself,  but  all  the  same  he  thought  he  could 

20 


THE   SOPHOMORE-FRESHMAN    RUSH 

study  better  if  he  could  hear  the  old  wind- 
pump  go  "kitty-chunk,  kitty-chunk,"  as 
when  he  was  studying  his  High  School  les 
sons  on  windy  winter  nights,  long  ago ;  so 
long  that  it  all  seemed  like  a  different  exist 
ence. 

It  was  because  he  was  thinking  very  hard 
about  that  previous  existence  that  he  started 
so  when  he  suddenly  heard  a  sound — away 
off  in  the  distance.  It  was  in  the  direction 
of  the  campus.  It  was  someone  singing. 
It  was  nothing  to  get  excited  over ;  men  in 
the  upper  classes  were  all  the  time  going 
around  in  groups  lazily  singing,  laughing 
and  talking,  and  looking  as  if  they  never 
thought  of  their  studies.  So  he  turned 
over  the  leaves  of  his  book  again.  But 
after  awhile  this  singing  came  nearer  and 
nearer. 

There  were  many  voices,  all  singing  in 
concert,  if  not  all  in  tune,  but  Young  did 
not  notice  that  fault,  for  just  then  the  sing 
ing  stopped — the  quick,  short  college  cheer 
cut  through  the  air,  and  on  the  end  of  the 
cheer  the  Freshman  class  numerals — his 

21 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A   FRESHMAN 

class  numerals.  He  waited  a  moment  to 
make  sure.  Then  it  came  again  : 

"Ray!  Ray!  Ray!  Tiger!  Siss-boom-ah ! 
Ninety-blank ! " 

Then  another  one,  a  "  long  cheer "  this 
time — the  same  as  the  other  except  that  the 
Siss,  the  Boom,  and  the  Ah  were  prolonged 
impressively  :  "  Ray  !  Ray  !  Ray  !  Tiger — 
sisses  !  Boom-m  !  Ah-h-h — Ninety-blank  !" 

Now,  it  gives  a  freshman  a  peculiar  thrill 
the  first  time  he  hears  many  voices  shouting 
in  concert  for  his  class.  Young's  heart  be 
gan  to  thump.  "  That's  my  class,"  he  said 
to  himself,  and  then  he  turned  to  his  brooks 
again  because  he  had  not  come  to  coiiege 
to  have  a  good  time,  but  to  rtudy.  Bu.  he 
sighed  a  little. 

Now  the  voices  began  singing  to  the  tune 
of  "  Balm  of  Gilead  " : 

"  Here's  to  Ninety -blank  —  Drink  her 
down — drink  her  down — 

"  Here's  to  Ninety-blank — 

Drink  her  down — drink  her  down, 
Here's  to  Ninety-blank — 
For  she's  always ' ' 

22 


THE   SOPHOMORE-FRESHMAN    RUSH 

something  that  rhymed  with  the  other  part 
of  Ninety. 

Young  put  down  his  book  for  a  minute. 

They  were  coming  still  nearer. 

He  could  hear  some  of  the  individual 
voices  now. 

Up  Dickinson  Street  they  came. 

They  turned  the  corner  at  Canal  Street 

Now  they  halted. 

Then  a  shrill  voice  shouted,  "  Now  then, 
altogether,  fellows,  Hip!  hip!" 

"Ninety-blank!  this!  way!!"  the  many 
shouted  in  unison.  It  made  a  great  noise. 

You*  g  opened  his  window. 

"  Onje  more,"  cried  the  shrill  voice. 

The  call  was  repeated. 

Young  stuck  his  head  out. 

"  Now  then,  fellows,  a  good  rousing  cheer 
for  the  honor  of  your  class.  Let  everybody 
talk.  Hip,  hip!" 

And  the  cheer  fairly  shook  the  house. 

"  Now  then,"  commanded  the  clear,  shrill 
voice,  "  Ninety-blank  this  way  again  once 
more — Hip,  hip  ! " 

Young  drew  his  head  in  from  the  window 
23 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

and  the  next  minute  he  was  running  down 
stairs  three  steps  at  a  time.  He  could  not 
help  it. 

Two  other  Freshmen  joined  him  from 
neighboring  houses  on  the  way  to  the 
corner. 

There,  with  the  street  light  glaring  dimly 
upon  them,  stood  the  Freshman  class,  or 
most  of  it,  closely  drawn  up  four  abreast, 
cheering  for  itself  with  all  its  might.  The 
Juniors  were  leading  the  cheers  with  ener 
getic  waving  of  the  arms;  other  Juniors  were 
marshalling  the  forces. 

Young  and  his  two  unknown  companions 
began  to  run  as  they  drew  nearer,  and  those 
in  the  rear  ranks  hearing  their  footsteps 
gave  a  yell  of  welcome.  It  sounded  like  a 
prolonged  "  Yea-a-a." 

The  three  new-comers  modestly  fell  in  at 
the  rear.  A  quick-stepping  nervous  Junior 
came  down  the  line  looking  each  row  over 
as  he  came  along.  He  wore  glasses,  Young 
noticed,  and  a  faded  orange-and-black  blazer. 

"  Here,  you  big  fellow,  you'll  do  to  go  in 
front/'  he  said,  in  a  voice  husky  from  cheer- 

34 


THE    SOPHOMORE-FRESHMAN    RUSH 

ing,  and  with  that  Young  was  taken  by  the 
arm,  led  way  up  to  one  of  the  front  rows, 
shoved  in  beside  three  other  fellows,  and  the 
Junior  said,  "  Now,  Tommy,  that  row's  com 
plete." 

The  Freshman  next  to  Young  grabbed  him 
by  the  coat-sleeve  and  locked  an  arm  through 
his  as  if  they  had  been  comrades  for  four 
years  instead  of  just  about  to  be. 

He  had  on  a  soiled  canvas  football  jacket 
and  was  hatless.  His  hair  was  long.  "  How 
much  do  you  weigh,  old  man  ?  "  he  asked  in 
an  excited  manner.  There  was  a  lull  in  the 
cheering  ;  everyone  seemed  to  be  whispering 
and  chatting  nervously  ;  some  of  those  in  the 
rear  were  laughing  at  what  one  of  the  Juniors 
was  telling  them. 

"About  one  hundred  and  eighty-five 
pounds,"  said  Young  to  his  neighbor  won 
dering  who  he  was  and  what  kind  of  a  fellow. 

"  Good  !  I  weigh  a  hundred  and  seventy- 
nine  and  a  half,  stripped,  just  now — go  up, 
though,  after  training  awhile.  You  play 
football,  I  suppose  ? " 

Young  had  never  seen  real  football  played, 
25 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A   FRESHMAN 

but  he  did  not  like  to  say  so — and  he  did  not 
have  to,  for  just  then  another  cheer  was  de 
manded  and  they  both  joined  in  with  the 
rest  of  the  class,  shouting  with  all  their  might, 
and  then  the  command  to  march  was  given, 
and  the  line  started  forward,  irregularly  at 
first  and  with  much  treading  upon  heels,  un 
til  one  of  the  Juniors  shouted,  "  Spread  out, 
fellows,  spread  out ;  you'll  have  "  (laughing) 
"  all  the  close  rank  work  you  want  when 
you  get  on  the  campus,"  and  then  someone 
put  them  in  step  by  saying,  "  Hep  !  .  .  . 
Hep  !  .  .  .  Hep ! "  And  when  the  col 
umn  was  in  step,  a  Junior  in  the  rear  who 
had  a  high  tenor  voice  started  up  the  famous 
marching  tune  of 

"  Hoorah  !  Hoorah  ! 

The  flag  that  set  us  free. 
Hoorah  !   Hoorah  ! 
The  year  of  jubilee." 

only  the  words  they  used  were : 

"  Nassau  !  Nassau  ! 

Ring  out  the  chorus  free— 


THE   SOPHOMORE-FRESHMAN    RUSH 

Nassau  !  Nassau  ! 

Thy  jolly  sons  are  we. 

Care  shall  be  forgotten,  all  our  sorrows  flung  away, 
While  we  are  marching  through  Princeton  !  " 

"Oh,  we'll  do 'em!"  remarked  Young's 
comrade,  excitedly,  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
song. 

Young  wanted  to  say  something  in  reply, 
but  he  did  not  know  who  "  they "  were  or 
how  they  were  to  be  done.  So  he  only  said, 
"Think  so?" 

"  Dead  easy — we  outnumber  them  three 
to  two." 

Soon  the  main  street,  Nassau  Street,  was 
reached  ;  and  by  that  time,  after  much  cheer 
ing  and  many  "  This  ways,"  nearly  two  hun 
dred  Freshmen  were  in  the  ranks  and  shout 
ing  like  good  fellows. 

The  line  turned  down  toward  the  main 
college  gate. 

Along  both  sides  of  the  streets  walked  a 
crowd  of  onlookers  :  upper-classmen  in  flan 
nel  clothes  seeming  mildly  interested  in  what 
was  to  them  an  old  story ;  little  town  boys 
in  short  trousers  shouting  "  Ray  for  de 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

Freshmans  ! "  and  looking  forward  with  ex 
citement  to  what  was  never  an  old  story 
to  them.  The  shopkeepers  were  standing  in 
their  doors  to  see  them  pass.  Upstairs  win 
dows  opened  and  heads  stuck  out. 

In  a  pause  between  the  verses  of  a  song 
Young  heard,  far  off  in  the  distance,  the  quick 
eager  :  "  Ray  !  Ray !  Ray  !  Tiger,  siss,  boom, 
ah  ! "  of  the  short  cheer.  It  was  much  more 
sharply  and  crisply  given  than  the  cheers  he 
had  joined  in,  and  on  the  end  of  it  came  the 
numerals  of  the  Sophomore  class. 

Now,  he  had  understood  vaguely  that  there 
was  to  be  some  sort  of  contest  between  his 
class  and  the  Sophomores,  but  this  blatant, 
confident  cheer  away  off  somewhere  in  the 
distant,  indefinite  darkness,  gave  him  a  start ; 
just  for  a  moment  he  felt  frightened.  He 
was  not  the  only  one. 

"  Oh,  we'll  do  'em,"  said  the  man  next  to 
Young. 

"  Dead  easy!"  said  Young,  this  time. 

They  had  passed  the  first  gate  by  the 
Dean's  house  and  were  marching  in  good 
order  down  the  broad  old  street. 

28 


THE   SOPHOMORE-FRESHMAN    RUSH 

"  Column  right — wheel ! "  said  the  Junior 
in  front,  and  they  turned  in  at  the  carriage 
entrance. 

Before  he  quite  realized  it  Young  found 
himself  walking  on  the  soft,  green  turf  of 
the  campus  itself. 

The  singing  had  ceased.  The  talking 
stopped  now.  Nothing  could  be  heard  but 
the  "  tr'm,  tr'm,  tr'm,"  of  many  feet  taking 
many  steps  at  the  same  instant. 

"  Halt ! "  said  one  of  the  Juniors  in  a  whis 
per.  "  Form  close  ranks — lock  step."  The 
long  line  began  to  concentrate. 

Another  of  the  Juniors  went  down  the  line 
saying,  in  a  low  voice,  "  Put  your  caps  in 
your  pockets,  fellows — put  your  caps  in  your 
pockets,  fellows."  Many  of  them  had  already 
done  so.  Some  only  pulled  theirs  on  tighter. 

"  Are  you  ready  back  there,  Tommy  ? " 
asked  one  of  the  Juniors. 

"  Yes,  Jack." 

The  man  hugging  Young's  arm  whispered, 
"  That's  Jack  Stehman,  the  great  tackle." 

"  Oh,"  said  Young,  looking  admiringly  at 
the  powerful-looking  football  hero. 

29 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

"  Now  then,  fellows,"  Stehman  was  saying 
to  the  Freshmen,  "  the  Sophomores  are  lined 
up  and  waiting  for  you  over  by  West  Col 
lege  ;  one  of  our  men  has  just  come  from 
there.  You  fellows  are  nearly  fifty  men 
stronger  than  they  are.  Stick  together  and 
you'll  rush  them  dead  easy." 

At  this  four  or  five  excited  Freshmen 
started  a  faint  cheer  but  it  was  crushed  down 
by  several  vigorous  "  sishes  ! "  "  Keep  your 
mouths  shut,"  said  one  of  the  other  Juniors. 

"  Now,  follow  me  and,  mind,  stick  to 
gether  %  whatever  you  do.  Stick  together ! " 
This  was  big  Jack  Stehman  again.  Young 
admired  him ;  hoped  to  become  well  ac 
quainted  with  him  some  day. 

The  compact  mass  moved  forward,  their 
bodies  close  together  and  their  legs  and  feet 
beneath  taking  quick  short  steps  as  best  they 
could.  It  was  like  a  huge  dark  centipede, 
except  that  centipedes  probably  do  not  step 
on  so  many  of  their  heels  at  once. 

On  either  side  walked  upper-classmen, 
some  calmly  smoking  pipes  as  if  there  was 
nothing  to  be  excited  about,  laughing  lightly 

30 


THE   SOPHOMORE-FRESHMAN    RUSH 

and  making  remarks.  The  way  they  looked 
at  Young  and  his  companions  reminded  him 
of  his  father  and  the  other  farmers  judging 
live  stock  at  the  county  fair. 

"Pretty  good  looking  Freshman  class, 
Harry,"  said  one  fellow  whose  face  Young 
couldn't  see  in  the  dark 

"  Urn,"  said  the  one  addressed,  nodding. 

41  There's  a  fellow,  looks "     Young  lost 

the  rest  of  it. 

Up  the  gravel  driveway  the  black  mass 
crept  toward  the  opening  between  the  dark 
Library  and  darker  Dickinson  Hall. 

Young  was  grabbing  tight  hold  of  the 
Freshman  in  front  of  him  and  wondering 
what  would  come  next. 

They  were  just  through  the  opening  and 
were  about  to  turn  toward  the  quadrangle. 
Suddenly  there  was  a  rumbling  sound,  like 
distant  thunder. 

Then  shouted  Jack  Stehman,  the  big 
Junior :  "  Here  they  come  !  here  they  come. 
Now  then  keep  together,  fellows,  keep 
together,  keep  together  —  come  at  'em 
hard!* 

31 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

Now  the  many  feet  of  the  Freshman 
column  began  to  rumble.  On  they  plunged, 
increasing  their  speed  every  second. 

The  spectators  on  either  side  sprang  back. 
On  came  the  Sophomores  with  still  more 
momentum,  showing  a  front  row  of  hardened 
football  men  with  football  suits.  A  distant 
light  shone  on  them  and  Young  had  a  vivid 
glimpse  of  their  determined  faces. 

Then,  with  the  Juniors  crying,  "Come 
faster !  come  faster !  stick  together ! "  and 
the  Seniors  who  coached  the  Sophomores 
shouting,  "  Rush  'em,  rush  'em,  rush  'em  ! " 
the  two  lines  came  together. 

Young  was  conscious  of  a  dull  crunching 
"  thrump."  It  sounded  as  if  bones  were 
breaking,  though  none  was.  Then  he  saw 
the  two  rows  in  front  of  him  lifted  up  in  mid 
air.  The  front  rows  of  Sophomores  were 
squeezed  up  also.  It  was  like  colliding  trains 
of  cars.  Young  could  see  them  up  there 
struggling,  could  hear  them  straining  and 
grunting  and  pushing  and  shouting  while 
the  distant  light  gleamed  on  their  dishevelled 

hair. 

32 


THE    SOPHOMORE-FRESHMAN    RUSH 

"  Now  !  now  !  that's  the  way — now  we're 
getting  them ! "  one  of  the  Juniors  was 
shrieking. 

"  That's  the  way  ! "  yelled  another. 

"  Stick  together  ! "  roared  Stehman,  jump 
ing  in  and  shoving  mightily  himself.  He 
seemed  as  strong  and  as  regardless  of  his 
body  as  a  mad  bull,  and  yet  he  was  as  calm 
as  a  man  loading  hay. 

"Rush  'em  off  the  campus!  Rush  the 
Freshmen  ! "  shouted  the  Seniors  now  becom 
ing  alarmed. 

"  Yea-a- !  we're  doing  'em,"  panted  the 
well-built  man  beside  Young.  "  Shove ! 
shove !  shove ! " 

Young  was  straining  and  shoving  with  his 
teeth  set  and  he  felt  as  if  his  ribs  would  soon 
break.  But  he  had  the  exultant  joy  of 
victory.  His  feet  were  off  the  ground  and 
he  was  being  carried  along  by  the  force  of 
those  behind  him. 

The  Sophomores  had  tried  to  take  them  by 
surprise  before  they  got  up  the  grade  by  the 
Library.  If  they  had  been  successful  they 
would  have  made  short  work  of  the  Fresh- 

33 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A   FRESHMAN 

men.  As  it  was  they  had  more  momentum, 
but  in  hurrying  across  the  campus  to  accom 
plish  their  design  their  lines  had  become 
loose.  The  Freshmen,  on  the  other  hand, 
were  solid  through  and  through,  and  now 
the  compact  mass  in  the  rear  was  beginning 
to  tell.  The  Freshmen  were  shoving  the 
Sophomores  back.  Young  heard  shouts  of 
victory. 

But  at  this  point  the  usual  and  natural 
result  took  place.  The  lines  were  too  long 
for  their  width,  and  so  it  was  only  for  a 
moment  that  they  kept  straight  head  to 
head ;  the  pushing  from  behind  bent  them 
and  they  doubled  in  upon  themselves.  The 
Freshmen  'way  back  there  in  the  rear  think 
ing  the  Sophomores  had  retreated  rushed 
on  hard,  shouting  for  their  class  and  their 
victory,  while  at  the  same  time  part  of  the 
Sophomores  did  the  same  thing  on  the  other 
side.  And  so  sections  of  each  column  passed 
each  other  shouting,  "  Rush  'em  ! "  and  the 
rest  turned  around  on  each  other  and  got 
hopelessly  mixed  up  and  excited.  In  this 
mix  there  was  much  shouting  and  consider- 

34 


THE   SOPHOMORE-FRESHMAN    RUSH 

able  cap-grabbing  and  some  rough  work. 
And  the  confused,  disorganized  Freshmen 
did  not  know  just  what  was  going  on  until 
a  sudden  cry  went  up,  "  Look  out !  look 
out !  Here  they  come  again/' 

"  Get  in  line — for  Heaven's  sake,"  hur 
riedly  shouted  a  Junior,  and  "This  way," 
roared  big  Stehman,  "this  way,  I  tell  you, 
you  fools ! " 

But  it  was  too  late.  The  rumbling  was 
heard  again,  and  from  an  unexpected  direc 
tion,  and  before  the  huddling  Freshmen  could 
even  get  started,  a  compact  mass  of  Sopho 
mores  came  pounding  down  upon  them, 
ploughed  through  them,  knocked  some  of 
them  over  and  came  out  solid  on  the  other 
side. 

Then  there  was  great  shouting  among 
the  Sophomores,  with  much  blatant,  exul 
tant  cheering. 

Meanwhile  the  rallying  cry  of  "  Ninety- 
blank  this  way ! "  began  ringing  out  again. 
It  was  over  by  the  quadrangle  and  now  the 
scattered  Freshmen  were  scurrying  over  to 
ward  the  sound  of  it. 

35 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A   FRESHMAN 

"Ninety-blank?"  shouted  a  boyish  voice 
in  Young's  ear  not  two  feet  away  from  it. 

"  Yes,"  said  Young,  excitedly,  and  took 
the  owner  of  it  by  the  arm  and  hurried  along 
through  the  crowd  toward  their  comrades. 

Just  then  an  unseen  hand  made  a  grab  at 
Young's  hat — off  it  went ;  and  the  grabber 
dodged  out  of  sight  in  the  crowd  and  dark 
ness. 

"There  goes  my  hat,"  said  Young. 

"  Mine  went  long  ago,"  said  his  new-found 
comrade,  meaning  ten  seconds  before.  He 
was  a  little  fellow  and  seemed  very  young. 
"  We  oughtn't  to  have  taken  them  out  of 
dlir  pockets."  He  was  laughing  excitedly  as 
he  ran  along. 

They  hurried  into  line  with  the  others  by 
West  College. 

A  Junior  dressed  in  a  conspicuous  white 
flannel  suit  came  running  over,  shouting, 
"  The  Sophs  are  just  beginning  to  form  over 
there  by  the  cannon.  Hurry  and  you  can 
get  them  on  the  flank." 

"All  right,"  cried  Jack  Stehman,  "come 
on,  fellows.  Never  mind  weights  and  sizes. 

36 


THE   SOPHOMORE-FRESHMAN    RUSH 

Now  do  something,  do  something  for  youi 
class." 

"  Come  on,"  called  another,  "  this  time  we 
get  the  cannon  !  " 

Without  waiting  for  all  the  class  to  collect, 
or  for  perfect  formation,  the  Freshman 
column  dashed  down  at  the  thick  of  the 
Sophomores  who  now  stopped  giving  "  This- 
way  "  shouts  and  started  forward  to  meet 
their  opponents.  They  knew  that  to  be 
caught  napping  meant  to  be  rushed,  and  then 
the  Freshmen  would  gain  the  coveted  cannon. 

Again  the  two  columns  met  like  two  big 
waves,  and  like  spray  the  front  lines  were 
dashed  on  high.  Young  was  up  there  this 
time,  literally  face  to  face  with  the  Sopho 
mores.  He  could  see  them  straining  and 
grunting  and  pushing  like  himself.  The 
little  fellow  that  had  fallen  in  rank  beside 
him  was  up  there  too,  being  tossed  about 
like  a  cork. 

The  Sophomores  were  only  half  prepared 
for  the  attack,  and  were  being  charged  back  ; 
Young  felt  them  giving  way  before  him.  It 
felt  good. 

37 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

"  Hold  them,  hold  them,  fellows  !  "  shouted 
the  Seniors,  and  some  of  them  pitched  in  to 
help  their  allies,  the  Sophomores. 

But  they  could  not  hold  them,  and  the 
little  fellow  beside  Young  began  screaming, 
"  We're  rushing  'em !  we're  rushing  the 
Sophs,"  in  the  Sophomores'  very  faces. 

A  big  Sophomore  in  the  front  rank  got 
one  arm  free,  reached  up  and  struck  the 
little  fellow  in  the  face,  then  got  hold  of  his 
coat  and  began  to  jerk  the  little  one  down. 

Young  reached  over,  grabbed  the  big 
Sophomore's  wrist  and  freed  his  little  class 
mate.  "  Hi !  Deacon !  "  cried  a  disagreeable 
voice  somewhere  in  the  rows  of  Sophomores 
before  him.  Young  was  devoting  all  his 
energy  to  the  little  fellow  whose  nose  was 
now  bleeding ;  this  did  not  seem  to  bother 
the  latter,  for  he  wriggled  around,  nimbly 
clambered  up  on  Young's  big  shoulders, 
then  kneeling  on  them  and  having  free  play 
for  his  arms  he  began  to  strike  right  and  left 
at  the  Sophomores  beneath  him  as  fast  as  he 
could,  and  he  seemed  to  be  able  to  strike 
both  fast  and  hard. 

38 


THE   SOPHOMORE-FRESHMAN   RUSH 

Seeing  his  pluck  those  behind  him  now 
plunged  forward  harder  than  ever. 

"  Yea-a-a — the  cannon — the  cannon,  we've 
got  it ! "  cried  the  little  fellow. 

Young  felt  himself  brushing  up  against 
something  hard  and  solid.  Sure  enough  it 
was  the  big  iron  breech  of  the  old  cannon 
that  he  had  seen  standing  muzzle  down,  in 
the  centre  of  the  quadrangle. 

The  little  fellow  jumped  down  from 
Young's  shoulders  upon  it,  and  began  to 
lead  a  cheer,  though  he  did  not  know  how  to 
do  it  very  well.  But  he  waved  his  hands 
about  his  head  and  everyone  yelled  exult- 
ingly.  They  had  won. 

Then  Jack  Stehman,  the  Junior  coach, 
hustled  the  little  one  off,  jumped  up  on  the 
cannon  himself  and  led  a  cheer  in  the  right 
way.  The  little  fellow  was  out  of  sight  now, 
but  not  out  of  memory.  He  was  a  hero. 

Meanwhile  some  of  the  other  Sophomores 
had  zealously  rushed  some  of  the  other 
Freshmen  off  the  quadrangle  and  were  shout 
ing  themselves  hoarse  for  their  victory  down 
by  Clio  Hall,  but  the  Freshmen  had  the 

39 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

cannon.  That  was  what  they  were  after  all 
this  time,  as  Young  now  learned. 

"  It's  all  over  now.  Go  home,  you  fellows," 
said  the  hoarse-voiced  Juniors,  silencing  the 
exuberant  Freshmen. 

"We  rushed  them,  though,  didn't  we?" 
eagerly  asked  a  Freshman  with  necktie  gone 
and  coat  torn  half  off.  Young  saw  it  was 
his  small  comrade. 

"  'Course  you  did,"  said  Jack  Stehman,  his 
voice  sounding  gruff  and  authoritative.  "  Go 
to  your  rooms  as  fast  as  you  can  ;  Sophs'll 
haze  tar  out  of  you  if  they  catch  you  to 
night.  They  expected  to  have  an  easy  thing 
of  it." 

The  little  fellow  had  spied  Young. 
"  Good-night,"  he  said,  holding  out  his  hand, 
"  much  obliged  for  what  you  did.  My 
name's  Lee." 

"  Young  is  my  name."  They  shook  hands. 
"  Hope  you  aren't  hurt,"  Young  added,  smil 
ing. 

"  Nope  ;  see  you  again.     Good-night." 

The  Freshmen  now  began  to  scatter  in  all 

directions    in   the  darkness,  some  of   them 

4o 


AFTER   THE   RUSH. 

In   walked     ...     the   little  Sophomore,  and  behind   him  a   very  big 
Sophomore.    Young  recognized  him  as  the  one    .    .    .—Page  41. 


THE   SOPHOMORE-FRESHMAN    RUSH 

limping  and  some  of  them  going  slowly  be 
cause  out  of  breath  ;  and  some  had  fewer  gar 
ments  than  when  they  left  their  rooms.  But 
all  had  a  great  deal  more  class  spirit,  and 
that  is  the  object  of  the  cannon  rush.  There 
was  not  one  among  them  who  would  have 
missed  it  for  anything. 

Young  reached  his  room  without  advent 
ure.  He  limped  a  little  as  he  went  upstairs, 
but  he  did  not  know  it. 

He  had  been  in  his  room  but  a  few  mo 
ments  when  a  knock  came  at  the  door.  He 
had  had  no  callers  before  this. 

"  Come  in,"  said  Young,  cheerfully.  He 
thought  perhaps  it  was  Lee. 

In  walked  Channing,  the  little  Sophomore, 
and  behind  him  a  very  big  Sophomore, 
dressed  in  a  football  suit.  Young  recognized 
him  as  the  one  that  struck  little  Lee,  and 
he  seemed  to  recognize  Young ;  at  least  he 
grinned  and  showed  the  place  where  a  front 
tooth  was  gone. 

And  Channing  wore  Young's  hat. 


CHAPTER   IV 

WELCOME   AND    UNWELCOME    VISITORS 

SUPPOSE  you  were  a  Freshman  and  hazing 
were  still  in  vogue,  and  the  first  callers  in 
your  college  course  were  two  Sophomores, 
and  each  of  them  had  reasons  for  wanting  to 
humiliate  you,  and  one  of  the  fellows  was  a 
football  player  with  muscles  larger  than  your 
own  ;  how  would  you  feel  if  they  strode  into 
your  room,  looking  arrogant  ? 

You,  possibly,  might  not  mind  it.  If  so, 
Will  Young  was  different  from  you,  for  he 
felt  very  queer  as  he  arose  from  his  chair. 

Channing  said,  "  How  do  you  do,  Mr. 
Young  ? "  Then,  closing  the  door  so  the 
landlady  might  not  hear,  "Well,  Deacon," 
with  his  sarcastic  smile,  "  we've  come  for 
you.M 

Young  said  nothing.  Instinctively  he  of 
fered  chairs. 


WELCOME   AND   UNWELCOME   VISITORS 

"  This  is  Deacon  Young  of  Squeedunk, 
the  freshest  man  in  the  class,  Bally.  Bow, 
Freshman,  to  Mr.  Ballard,  of  whom  you  have 
doubtless  heard — the  famous  centre  rush  of 
the  famous  Sophomore  football  eleven  that 
will  do  your  futile  Freshman  team  up  so  badly 
you  can't  see,  later  in  the  term." 

"  No,  thanks,"  said  the  big  fellow  to 
Young,  in  a  very  big  voice,  "never  sit  on 
chairs."  He  had  seated  himself  on  Young's 
table,  with  one  foot  on  a  chair,  and  was  look 
ing  around  the  room  as  Channing  went  on  : 

"  We  secured  several  of  your  charming 
classmates  on  the  campus.  They  aren't  far 
away  from  here  now."  Ballard  chuckled  at 
this.  "  But  we  missed  you  on  the  campus, 
Deacon.  You  must  have  run  home  after  the 
rush." 

The  Sophomores  both  laughed  at  this,  but 
Young  said  nothing,  and  wondered  how 
Channing  had  found  out  where  he  roomed. 

"  You  have  given  us  some  trouble.  That 
is  unfortunate  for  you.  But  you  were  kind 
enough  yesterday  to  oblige  me  with  your 
name ;  so  I  went  to  the  registrar's  office  and 

43 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

asked  where  my  dear  old  friend  Willie  Young 
roomed.  I  told  them  I  wanted  to  look  you 
up  and  take  care  of  you.  We'll  take  care  of 
you,  all  right — eh,  Bally  ?  " 

Ballard  laughed  his  loud  laugh  at  this  way 
of  talking.  He  thought  Channing  very  witty, 
and  so  did  Channing. 

Young  was  leaning  against  the  mantel 
piece. 

"  But  we  mustn't  waste  time  here,"  Chan 
ning  went  on  ;  "  pick  up  your  hat  and  come 
on  like  a  good  little  boy  ;  we're  all  going  for 
a  nice  little  stroll  to  the  canal  together." 

Young  had  heard,  since  he  last  saw  Chan 
ning,  what  the  Sophomores  did  with  Fresh 
men  at  the  canal.  He  did  not  move. 

"  Oh,  I  forgot,"  said  Channing,  "  you  have 
no  hat ;  you  lost  yours  in  the  rush  this  even 
ing,  didn't  you  ?  Well,  well,  that  was  too  bad. 
You  will  have  to  go  bareheaded.  However, 
Freshman,"  he  added,  patronizingly  stern, 
"  this  will  teach  you  a  good  lesson — two  good 
lessons.  In  the  first  place,  little  Willie  must 
wear  a  cap  and  not  a  big  felt  hat  like  this." 
He  took  Young's  hat  off  his  own  head  and 


WELCOME   AND    UNWELCOME   VISITORS 

looked  at  it  critically.  "  I  suppose  this  is  the 
latest  thing  out  at  Squeedunkville." 

Ballard  grinned.  Young  flushed  and  bit 
his  lip. 

"  In  the  second  place,  you  must  always 
take  it  off  when  you  meet  your  superiors 
and  thus  save  us  the  trouble  of  taking  it  off 
for  you  ;  and,"  he  added,  looking  out  of  the 
window  in  the  direction  of  the  canal,  "and 
so  save  yourself  some  trouble  also." 

Ballard  was  now  beginning  to  look  inter 
ested.  "  I  guess  the  Freshman's  got  another 
hat  in  his  closet,"  he  said,  gruffly.  Then  he 
commanded,  "  Go  get  it,  Freshman,  and  come 
on."  Ballard  was  standing  now. 

Young  did  have  a  hat — a  derby  hat,  the 
one  he  wore  on  the  train  and  when  he  first 
arrived — in  his  closet,  but  he  did  not  go  and 
get  it,  and  he  did  not  come  on. 

"  Didn't  you  hear  what  I  said  ? "  growled 
Ballard.  "  Come  on."  He  let  Channing  do 
the  guying,  but  he  liked  to  take  a  hand  in 
the  bossing  himself. 

Apparently  Young  heard  nothing  ;  he  had 
not  said  a  word,  and  he  was  quietly  looking 

45 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

down  at  the  carpet,  but  his  heart  was  beating 
fast. 

"  Now,  see  here,  Deacon,"  said  Channing, 
"we  don't  want  to  have  any  trouble  with 
you.  Are  you  going  to  come  along  peace 
fully  and  have  an  easy  time  of  it,  or  are  you 
going  to  make  a  little  trouble  for  us  and  a 
lot  for  yourself?" 

Young  did  not  speak  or  look  up.  He 
seemed  to  be  moving  his  tongue  about  in 
his  cheek. 

Ballard  approached  him.  "  You  won't 
come,  eh  ?  "  he  said,  angrily.  And  with  that 
he  took  him  by  the  shoulder. 

"  Take  your  hands  off  me,"  said  the  Fresh 
man,  shrilly,  and  wrenched  quickly  away, 
backing  up  against  the  wall.  He  stood  there 
breathing  hard,  and  he  glanced  from  one 
Sophomore  to  the  other. 

Now,  it  is  not  the  easiest  thing  in  the 
world  for  a  big  man  and  a  little  man  to  drag 
out  of  a  room  one  very  good-sized  man  who 
looks  as  if  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  stay 
in  it.  At  any  rate,  to  do  it  without  consid 
erable  noise  is  impossible.  Therefore  Chan- 

46 


VVELCOxME   AND   UNWELCOME   VISITORS 

ning  stepped  across  to  the  open  window, 
stuck  his  head  out,  and  gave  a  long,  peculiar 
whistle.  He  waited  a  moment  and  then  re 
peated  it.  Then  an  answer  came  back  from 
the  distance. 

"  We'll  soon  fixyou,  Deacon,"  he  remarked, 
nodding  his  head,  as  he  returned  from  the 
window. 

Young  was  still  standing  backed  up  against 
the  wall.  Ballard,  braced  against  the  door 
opposite  to  prevent  the  Freshman's  escape, 
was  scowling. 

"  They'll  be  here  in  a  minute,"  said  Chan- 
ning. 

He  referred  to  the  classmates  he  had 
signalled  to.  You  see  if  they  had  all  come 
in  together  it  would  have  aroused  the  land 
lady's  suspicions.  As  it  was,  Channing  had 
been  obliged  to  tell  her  that  Ballard  and 
himself  represented  the  college  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
and  that  they  wanted  to  ask  Mr.  Young  to 
join  it. 

"When  they  whistle  I'll  tip-toe  down  and 
let  them  in,"  said  Channing.  "  Listen ! 
What's  that?" 

47 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

Footsteps  were  heard  coming  up  the  stairs. 

44  They  couldn't  have  gotten  here  so  soon," 
said  Ballard. 

44 1  didn't  hear  any  whistle,"  said  Channing. 

The  footsteps  came  nearer. 

"  Is  this  the  room  ?"  said  a  voice  just  out 
side  the  door. 

"  Yes,  that's  the  one,"  came  the  reassuring 
tones  of  the  landlady  below. 

The  Sophomores  had  stopped  talking. 

A  knock. 

No  reply. 

Another  knock. 

44  Come  in,"  said  Young,  defiantly. 

Ballard  stepped  to  one  side. 

The  door  opened. 

"Is  this  Mr.  Young?" 

44  That's  my  name."  said  Young.  "  Come 
in."  He  was  still  standing  by  the  mantel 
piece. 

A  dark-eyed,  strong-faced,  matured-look- 
ing  man  with  rather  long  hair  stood  in  the 
doorway.  44 1  am  Nolan,"  he  said,  4<  of  the 
Junior  class,  and  this  is  Mr.  Linton,"  turn 
ing  to  a  man  behind  him. 

48 


WELCOME   AND    UNWELCOME    VISITORS 

"  Hello  there,  Ballard,"  Nolan  said,  cas 
ually  then  suddenly  taking  in  the  situation 
and  smiling,  "  sorry  to  spoil  your  fun,"  he 
said.  "  Hello,  where's  your  young  friend 
going  in  such  a  hurry  ?  " 

Channing  was  seen  slipping  out  of  the 
still  open  door.  "  I'll  be  right  back,"  he 
said,  grinning.  The  whistle  had  sounded 
while  Nolan  and  Linton  were  entering  the 
room,  and  Channing  wanted  to  get  down  in 
time  to — but  it  was  too  late.  The  Juniors 
had  left  the  front  door  open  when  they 
entered,  and  now  the  other  Sophomores  were 
on  the  way  up  the  second  flight  of  stairs. 
"  Where's  the  Freshman's  room,  Chan?"  they 
said,  in  a  loud  whisper. 

41  Wait,  there's  no  use  coming  now,"  began 
Channing. 

But  Linton  was  now  at  the  head  of  the 
stairs  saying,  in  an  amused  tone  :  "  Oh,  come 
right  up;  don't  mind  us."  So,  rather  than 
seem  afraid  of  the  Juniors  they  trooped  in, 
all  six  of  them  looking  as  if  caught  at  some 
thing  they  were  ashamed  of. 

Linton  smiled  drolly  at  one  of  the  Sopho- 

49 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

mores  he  happened  to  know  personally. 
"  Hard  luck,  Valentine,"  he  said. 

Nolan  nodded  gravely  to  one  or  two  of 
them,  and  they  said,  "  How  do  you  do?" 
very  respectfully. 

No  one  said  anything  else  for  a  mo 
ment. 

"  Don't  let  us  interrupt  you,"  said  Chan- 
ning,  grinning. 

"We  had  no  intention  of  being  inter 
rupted,"  said  Lin  ton,  without  looking  up. 
And  Freshman  Young  noticed  that  the 
others  seemed  to  consider  this  a  good  joke 
on  Channing,  and  Channing  noticed  that 
Young  noticed  it,  and  this  was  one  thing 
more  to  remember  against  Young. 

"  By  the  way,"  Linton  went  on  in  a  lazy, 
matter-of-fact  way,  as  he  began  filling  a  pipe, 
"perhaps  it  would  be  just  as  well  if  you 
fellows  all  got  up  and  got  out  of  here  now. 
Billy  and  I  came  here  to  talk  hall  to  this 
Freshman,  and  we  have  a  number  of  others 
to  call  on,  and  Billy  mustn't  stay  up  late 
these  days,  you  know." 

"  Billy  "  meant  Nolan,  the  one  with  long 


WELCOME   AND   UNWELCOME   VISITORS 

hair,  and  he  was  a  university  football  man, 
and  the  training  season  had  begun. 

Linton  made  this  remark  in  an  ordinary 
tone,  as  if  it  were  the  most  natural  thing  in 
the  world  to  request  seven  or  eight  men  to 
leave  a  room.  He  struck  a  match  for  his 
pipe  as  he  finished  speaking,  and  then  lifted 
his  feet  up  on  the  table  and  leaned  back 
without  looking  at  the  under-classmen. 

The  Sophomores  said,  "  All  right,"  meekly 
arose,  murmured,  "  Good-night,"  and  smiling 
rather  sheepishly  departed. 

Young  looked  on  with  mingled  feelings. 
They  outnumbered  the  Juniors  seven  to  two, 
and  yet  the  arrogant  Sophomores  did  not 
even  question  the  Junior's  power.  He  was 
learning  something  about  these  traditions 
and  customs ;  evidently  the  authority  was 
not  in  bodily  strength. 

But  the  two  upper-classmen,  without  wait 
ing  to  see  what  became  of  the  Sophomores, 
began  forthwith  to  tell  Young  how  different 
were  the  two  secret  literary  societies,  whose 
mysterious  Greek  temples  looked  so  much 
alike  there  side  by  side  on  the  campus,  and 

51 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A   FRESHMAN 

to   point   out   how  superior  was  their  own 
"hall,"  as  they  called  it. 

Nolan,  who  was  a  famous  orator  in  this 
hall,  did  most  of  the  talking.  Linton  only 
put  in  a  word  now  and  then,  but  he  kept 
glancing  at  the  Freshman  in  a  queer,  quizzical 
way  as  he  blew  smoke.  When  they  arose  to 
go  Linton  said,  in  a  pleasant  tone  : 

"  I  suppose  the  Sophomores  are  bothering 
you  a  good  deal  ? " 

Young  wondered  what  made  Linton  say 
so.  "  No,"  he  replied  ;  "  they  tried  to  make 
me  take  off  my  hat  yesterday,  but  I  wouldn't 
do  it." 

He  thought  that  would  impress  these 
upper-classmen. 

Linton  glanced  at  Nolan,  who  smiled. 

"  Say,  Young,"  said  Linton,  kindly,  "  of 
course  it's  none  of  my  business,  but — well, 
I'd  take  off  my  hat  if  I  were  you." 

"  Why  ?  " 

"Oh,  well,  because  you're  a  Freshman." 

"  But  what  right  have  they  to  make  me 
take  off  my  hat  to  them  ?  They  aren't  any 
better  than " 

S3 


WELCOME   AND   UNWELCOME   VISITORS 

"  Because  they're  Sophomores.  Come  on, 
Billy/*  He  opened  the  door.  "  You  think 
it  over,  Young.  Good-night  Glad  to  have 
met  you,  Young." 

Then  on  his  way  downstairs  he  added  to 
his  friend  Billy  Nolan,  "I  like  that  big, 
green  Freshman,  but  he  needs  hazing." 

"  He  is  rather  fresh.  Do  you  think  we'll 
secure  him,  Jim  ?" 

"  But  you  can  hardly  blame  him  for  taking 
himself  so  seriously,"  Linton  went  on  as  they 
gained  the  street.  "  You  see  he  has  always 
lived  at  home,  didn't  go  away  to  prep,  school, 
was  never  guyed  or  anything  of  that  sort  in 
all  his  innocent  life,  and  he  doesn't  know  how 
to  take  it.  He  was  an  important  person  at 
home — probably  led  his  class  at  the  High 
School — has  a  lot  of  little  brothers  and  sisters 
that  bow  down  to  him  ;  and  they've  told  him 
that  he  is  a  great  man  so  often  that  he  thinks 
there  must  be  something  in  it.  His  hands 
show  he  has  worked  on  a  farm,  but  the  palms 
are  soft  now — I  noticed  that  shaking  hands 
— so  he's  probably  clerked  in  a  store  or  taught 
school ;  yes,  he's  probably  taught  school." 

$3 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

Linton  considered  himself  a  student  of 
human  nature,  and  he  did  guess  pretty  well 
this  time,  though  Young  had  no  sisters  and 
had  never  taught  school. 

"  Anyway,"  he  concluded,  and  in  this  he 
was  right,  perhaps,  "  college  will  be  a  great 
thing  for  him.  No  one  ever  made  him  real 
ize  his  relative  unimportance  in  the  world." 

"As  we  made  big  Bally  realize  it  last 
year,"  interposed  Nolan,  smiling. 

"  Yes,  and  as  we,  too,  were  made  to  realize 
it  the  year  before.  My,  what  a  big  chump 
you'd  have  been,  Billy,  if  you  hadn't  been 
hazed." 

"  And,  oh,  what  a  supercilious  ass  you'd 
have  made,  Jim.  Do  you  remember  that 
time " 

And  these  two  walked  on  toward  the 
campus  with  arms  thrown  carelessly  about 
each  others'  shoulders,  reminiscencing  about 
days  which,  to  hear  them  talk,  you  would 
have  thought  were  half  a  generation  ago ; 
and  so  they  were — half  a  college  generation. 

Meanwhile  Young  was  doing  what  Linton 
had  told  him  to  do,  thinking  over  what  had 

54 


WELCOME   AND   UNWELCOME   VISITORS 

been  said  to  him.  Also  he  thought  over 
•vhat  he  had  observed  when  the  Juniors  and 
Sophomores  were  in  the  room  together,  and 
he  came  to  certain  conclusions.  Then  he 
went  to  bed. 


CHAPTER  V 

HAZING 

THE  very  next  evening,  as  Young  and  a 
classmate  named  Barrows  were  on  the  way 
from  supper,  someone  stepped  out  from  be 
hind  a  tree-box  and  said,  "  Here  he  is,  fel 
lows,"  and  the  next  moment  the  two  Fresh 
men,  surrounded  by  a  dozen  Sophomores, 
were  on  their  way  to  the  canal. 

Channing  acted  as  ringmaster,  as  usual. 
To  his  surprise  and,  perhaps,  disappointment, 
Young  was  not  sullen  or  stubborn ;  he 
seemed  rather  good-natured  about  it. 

"Take  off  your  hat,  Deacon." 

"All  right,"  said  Young,  smiling  cheer 
fully,  and  lifted  his  hat. 

"  Do  it  again  and  don't  smile." 

He  did  it  again  and  did  not  smile. 

"  Who  said  you  could  put  it  back  on  your 

head  ?     Take  it  off  and  keep  it  off." 

56 


HAZING 

Young  held  it  in  his  hand. 

"  Put  it  on  again,"  shouted  Channing.  And 
so  it  went. 

"  Now,  Deacon,  since  you  have  taken  off 
your  cap  and  have  shown  how  low  you  can 
bow,  show  us  how  the  prairie-dogs  run,  out 
home  on  the  farm."  The  group  was  getting 
beyond  the  houses  now. 

14  But  there  aren't  any  prairie-dogs  where 
I  live  in  Illinois,"  returned  Young,  smiling. 

"  That  doesn't  matter,"  growled  Ballard  ; 
"  do  it  anyway." 

So  William  Young,  thinking  of  how  the 
people  out  home  were  in  awe  of  him  be 
cause  he  had  gone  East  to  college,  got  down 
on  all  fours  and  ambled  along  the  dusty  road. 

"  Now  you  do  it,  you  little  Freshman  with 
the  big  head." 

Barrows  gave  his  version  of  a  prairie-dog's 
method  of  progress,  laughing  as  if  it  were  a 
good  joke. 

"  Now  both  do  it  at  once,"  said  Channing. 

The  Sophomores  laughed  gleefully,  espe 
cially  at  Young,  he  was  so  big  and  awkward. 

"That's  pretty  good,"  said  Channing,  as  if 

57 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A    FRESHMAN 

he  were  the  exhibitor  of  trained  animals. 
"  Now  both  sit  up  on  your  haunches  and 
chatter  awhile." 

Everybody  laughed,  Young  included. 

"  Don't  laugh,"  said  Channing. 

"  Cork  up  your  laughter,"  said  Ballard. 

Then  they  were  made  to  crow  like  roosters 
and  bark  like  dogs,  and  give  other  imita 
tions,  until  they  reached  the  tow-path  of  the 
canal.  Here  they  were  made  to  strip. 

"  Can  you  swim  ? "  one  of  the  fellows 
asked. 

Both  said  they  could. 

"  Then  jump  in  and  swim  across.  Be  quick 
about  it." 

The  water  was  cool,  but  it  did  not  hurt 
them. 

"  Now  swim  back  and  get  your  clothes." 

While  dressing  they  were  made  to  sing 
"  Home,  Sweet  Home  " — "  in  order  to  keep 
warm,"  Channing  said. 

"Now  cheer  for  the  illustrious  class  above 
you.  Are  you  ready  ? — Hip — Hip  !  " 

The  college  cheer  was  given  with  the  Soph 
omore  class  numerals  on  the  end. 

58 


HAZING 

"  I  don't  think  I  heard  your  sweet  voice, 
Deacon  Young,"  said  one  of  the  Sophs,  a 
tall  fellow  with  glasses.  "  Suppose  you  give 
us  one  all  alone.  Now  then,  Hip — Hip  !  " 

Young  kept  silent 

"  See  here,  you  cheer,  Deacon.  Do  as  we 
tell  you."  This  from  Ballard,  who  bellowed. 

Young  looked  around  at  the  Sophomores 
— there  were  twelve  of  them — and  then 
glanced  at  the  canal ;  he  did  not  want  to  go 
in  there  again  ;  he  was  shivering  already. 

"  Hip — Hip  ! "  said  Ballard.  Young  gave 
a  feeble  cheer. 

The  man  with  the  glasses  said  :  "  H'm, 
you'll  have  to  do  better  than  that.  Now 
then,  a  loud  one." 

Young  cleared  his  throat  and  gave  a  loud, 
full  cheer. 

"  That's  the  way  to  talk,"  they  said,  en 
couragingly. 

"  It  won't  hurt  you,  you  see,"  said  one  of 
them,  rather  kindly,  in  a  low  voice. 

"  You  are  improving,  Deacon  Young," 
said  Channing,  patronizingly.  "We'll  make 
a  man  of  you  yet" 

$9 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

Thus  began  a  new  epoch  in  the  life  of 
William  Young.  During  the  next  week  or 
so  of  his  college  course  he  was  hazed  per 
haps  more  than  anyone  in  his  class,  although 
from  that  first  time  he  no  longer  resisted  or 
tried  to  maintain  his  superiority. 

Undoubtedly  hazing,  as  Linton,  the  Junior, 
said,  was  a  good  thing  for  his  system,  as  it  is 
for  any  young  man,  but  Young  certainly  did 
not  need  such  severe  doses  nor  so  many  of 
them. 

Some  of  the  fellows  said  so  the  third  time 
he  was  taken  to  the  canal.  "  The  old  Dea 
con  is  all  right  now,"  they  said  ;  "why  d'  you 
give  it  to  him  so  hard  ?  " 

But  Channing  was  one  of  these  small  men 
that  love  to  get  power  over  big  men  ;  he 
loved  to  haze  and  he  hated  to  have  anyone 
call  him  little  or  mouthy,  and  Young  had 
called  him  both.  The  next  night  he  and 
Ballard,  who,  as  will  be  seen  later,  had  much 
of  the  bully  in  him,  would  bring  around  a 
different  crowd  and  Channing  would  take 
out  his  pipe,  shake  it  at  Young  and  say  to 
the  others,  "Now  this  old  jay  Deacon  is 

60 


HAZING 

innocent  and  meek  enough  to  look  at,  but  he 
is  atrociously  fresh  at  bottom  —  isn't  he, 
Bally,  you  old  horse  ?  " 

Young  said  nothing  and  took  his  hazing 
cheerfully  and  patiently,  hoping  they  would 
soon  get  tired  of  it. 

"  I  suppose,"  he  said  to  himself,  as  he 
hurried  back  to  his  room  to  work  until  past 
midnight,  in  order  to  make  up  for  lost  time, 
"  I  suppose  I  must  be  very  fresh,  or  they 
would  not  keep  it  up  so  long.  I  did  not 
know  I  was  so  fresh." 

But  he  told  himself  that  if  he  were  only 
well  liked  by  his  own  classmates  as  he  had 
expected  to  be,  he  would  not  care  what  his 
enemies  thought  of  him.  That  he  had  not 
sprung  into  popularity,  he  decided,  was  due  to 
that  painful  occurrence  at  his  first  recitation. 
It  made  him  flush  to  think  of  it  even  now. 

It  was  on  the  morning  after  the  rush  and 
after  the  Sophomores  had  been  turned  out  of 
his  room.  He  went  in  to  the  Livy  recita 
tion  for  which  he  had  prepared  himself  so 
thoroughly — he  went  over  it  four  and  a  half 
times,  you  may  remember — and  took  his 

61 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

seat,  feeling  strong  and  confident,  and,  "Mr. 
Young,  please  to  translate,"  said  the  pro 
fessor,  before  the  class  was  hardly  settled  in 
its  seats. 

It  was  in  a  low  voice.  Young  was  in  the 
back  of  the  room.  He  was  not  dreaming  of 
being  called  upon  first  anyway,  and  he  won 
dered  why  the  fellow  next  to  him  was  nudg 
ing  him  with  an  elbow.  Young  turned  and 
looked  at  him  inquiringly. 

"  Get  up,"  whispered  the  man. 

"  What  for  ?  "  whispered  Young. 

"  Isn't  Mr.  Young  present  ?  "  said  the  pro 
fessor  in  a  tone  loud  and  clear,  and  Young 
fairly  jumped  out  of  his  seat,  exclaiming, 
"Yes,  marm — yes,  sir,  I  mean." 

He  added  it  quickly  but  it  was  too  late. 
Everyone  had  heard  and  everyone  was 
laughing,  and  even  the  professor  joined  in, 
though  he  did  not  mean  it  unkindly,  and  then 
they  all  laughed  still  more.  The  walls  fairly 
echoed  with  it.  Even  after  the  professor 
had  rapped  for  order  and  the  laughter  had 
quieted  down,  someone  in  the  front  row 
tittered  and  that  set  them  all  off  again.  A 

62 


HAZING 

new  class  is  always  somewhat  hysterical. 
Some  of  those  in  the  front  rows  turned  and 
stared  at  him  in  their  laughter. 

It  was  a  natural  mistake.  This  freshman 
had  prepared  for  college  at  a  high  school, 
and  most  of  the  High  School  teachers  were 
women.  Young  should  have  joined  in  the 
laughter,  but  he  only  stood  there,  scarlet 
and  serious-looking  and  wishing  he  could 
disappear  forever. 

Finally  the  professor  said,  kindly,  "  Now 
then,  Mr.  Young." 

But  Mr.  Young  was  confused,  and  though 
he  had  been  over  the  passage  until  he  had  it 
nearly  by  heart,  he  now  became  all  tangled 
up  and  excited  and  finally  took  his  seat  drip 
ping  with  perspiration  and  wishing  he  had 
never  come  to  college.  Instead  of  being 
perfect  his  first  college  recitation  was  a  flat 
failure.  But  the  professor  did  not  count  this 
failure  against  him  because  he  saw  that  the 
fellow  was  rattled  and  because  the  next  time 
he  came  in  he  made  the  best  recitation  of 
the  day. 

But  that  was  not  the  trouble.  The  fel- 
63 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

lows  would  not  forget  it  and  would  not  let 
up  on  it.  "Thank  you,  marm,"  they  whis 
pered  as  he  arose  to  recite,  and  "  Thank  you, 
marm,"  they  shouted  to  him  on  the  crowded 
campus.  The  Sophomores  took  it  up.  It 
became  a  second  nick-name. 

The  worst  of  it  was — in  fact  the  reason  of 
it  all  was — that  he  took  this  as  he  did  him 
self  and  everything  else,  with  entirely  too 
much  self-importance.  Instead  of  laughing 
or  answering  back  he  looked  sullen  and 
sedate  when  they  said,  "  Thank  you,  marm," 
and  naturally  they  said  it  then  all  the  more. 

It  cut  and  hurt  to  have  his  own  class 
mates — the  men  with  whom  he  had  stood 
shoulder  to  shoulder  in  the  rush  and  at  the 
class  meeting — treat  him  thus.  If  they  had 
known  that  he  was  taking  it  so  seriously, 
they  would  have  stopped.  But  they  did  not 
know  it.  How  should  they  ?  Most  people 
have  to  suffer  before  they  learn  to  be  sym 
pathetic. 

So,  altogether,  with  the  Sophomores  who 
hazed  and  the  classmates  who  guyed,  Will 
Young  decided  that  college  life  was  not  all 

64 


HAZING 

it  was  cracked  up  to  be.  But  you  may 
be  sure  he  did  not  let  this  opinion  get  into 
the  letters  he  wrote  home.  Because  he  was 
discouraged  was  no  reason  for  making  his 
mother  discouraged  too.  But,  oh,  it  would 
have  helped  a  lot,  if  he  had  only  somebody 
to  talk  to  about  it  all.  He  did  not  know 
how  to  make  friends  with  the  others,  and  the 
others  did  not  seem  to  care  to  make  friends, 
thank  you,  marm,  with  the  sober-faced  old 
Deacon. 

It  was  all  very  well  for  a  fellow  like  Lin- 
ton  to  say  that  something  of  this  sort  was  a 
good  thing  for  a  fellow  like  Young.  But 
Linton  was  a  Junior,  with  friends  that  loved 
him;  and  Juniors  forget.  Besides,  some 
times  we  get  too  much  of  a  good  thing,  and 
then  it  becomes  a  bad  thing.  If  it  had  kept 
on  this  way  Young  might  have  become 
meek  and  backboneless,  and  such  an  ex 
treme  would  be  even  worse  than  that  of  self- 
importance. 

But  it  did  not  keep  on.  It  all  stopped 
one  day  quite  suddenly. 


CHAPTER  VI 

WORK — PLAY "  PROCS" 

"  PRINCETON,  N.  J.,  Sunday. 

"  DEAR  MOTHER  :  Yes,  the  Sophomores  have  hazed 
me  a  good  many  times  since  I  first  wrote  about  it,  but  I 
do  not  mind  it  much  now.  Honestly  I  do  not.  They 
mean  it  all  in  joke.  You  must  not  worry.  I  ought  not 
to  have  told  you  anything  about  it.  I  am  seldom  home 
sick,  and  am  very  happy  here  at  college. ' ' 

And  so  he  was.  For  each  hour  of  discom 
fort  there  were  many  other  hours  that  were 
exceedingly  comfortable  and  satisfactory,  for 
he  was  working  with  all  his  might  at  what 
he  had  always  wanted  to  work— he  was  get 
ting  a  college  education.  And  when  all  is 
said  and  done  there  is  nothing  like  hard 
work  and  a  good  digestion  to  make  a  fellow 
happy.  That  is  if  the  work  is  congenial  and 
the  food  is  good  ;  and  they  were. 

His  work  was  so  congenial  that  his  recita- 

66 


WORK-PLAY—"  PROGS  " 

tions  sometimes  made  the  fellows  in  the 
front  rows  turn  and  look  at  him,  the  same 
fellows  that  had  turned  and  looked  at  him 
during  that  first  frightful  recitation  ;  but 
their  faces  wore  different  expressions  now. 
He  was  getting  a  reputation  for  being  one 
of  the  "  keeners  "  of  his  division. 

And  as  for  his  food,  it  was  good — and  so 
were  the  table-mates,  for  now  that  the  shy 
ness  was  rubbing  off  he  was  beginning  to 
enjoy  meeting  and  sitting  down  at  the  table 
with  those  dozen  classmates  more  than  any 
part  of  the  day,  if  only  that  long,  thin  fellow 
who  was  studying  for  the  ministry  would 
not  say,  solemnly,  after  Young  had  handed 
the  bread,  "Thank  you,  marm."  However, 
he  did  not  mind  even  that  quite  so  much  as 
at  first,  because  he  was  learning  how  to  take 
good-natured  chaff  now,  and,  more  than  that, 
to  answer  it.  And  that  is  something  one  is 
likely  to  be  taught  at  college  if  he  learns 
nothing  else. 

The  letter  continued : 

"A  Junior  manages,  or  runs,  our  club;  that  is,  he 
gathered  in  us  twelve  Freshmen  during  the  first  day  or 

67 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

two  of  the  term,  and  brought  us  to  Mrs.  Brown's  table. 
I  told  you  how  several  club  managers  asked  me  to  join 
their  clubs  the  first  day  ?  Most  of  them  were  too  ex 
pensive,  though.  This  boarding  system  is  a  good  bar 
gain  for  the  ladies  who  supply  the  tables,  for  they  cannot 
collect  the  students  themselves,  and  a  good  bargain  for 
the  managers,  for  they  get  their  board  free,  and  so  save 
the  largest  item  of  expense  at  college." 

Young  was  finding  out  that  there  were,  as 
the  minister  had  told  him,  a  great  many  fel 
lows  at  college  who  had  to  consider  items 
of  expense  seriously,  but  he  was  surprised  to 
find  it  so  hard  to  tell  which  ones  did  and 
which  did  not 

"  Everybody  talks  as  if  he  were  '  dead  broke '  all  the 
time,  and  you  would  think  all  were,  to  look  at  them. 
It  is  not  the  thing  to  dress  well  here.  A  student  is 
made  fun  of  if  he  tries  it.  I  wear  the  black  cutaway 
coat  only  on  Sundays,  as  I  used  to,  instead  of  every  day, 
as  you  thought  I  should  have  to  do.  I  did  not  have  to 
buy  a  new  hat.  I  bought  a  flannel  cap  instead,  such  as 
all  the  fellows  wear." 

At  first  Young  was  rather  shocked  at  the 
slouchy  way  these  college  men  dressed,  and 
he  made  up  his  mind  that  he  would  not  wear 
corduroy  trousers  when  he  became  an  upper- 

68 


WORK— PLAY— '•  PROCS" 

classman.  But  there  were  not  only  many 
long  months,  but  a  very  serious  problem  to 
go  through  with,  before  he  became  an  upper- 
classman,  or  even  a  Sophomore.  However, 
he  had  money  enough  in  the  bank  to  scrape 
along  for  awhile ;  the  term  was  only  just 
begun,  and  things  might  turn  up  before 
it  ended,  and  meanwhile  he  did  not  want 
to  think  about  that,  because  it  always  re 
minded  him  of  his  father's  attitude  in  the 
matter.  "  Huh  1  We'll  see  how  long  you 
stay  there  with  those  dudes." 

A  fellow  does  not  like  to  feel  that  he  is 
doing  something  his  father  does  not  approve 
of,  no  matter  how  old  or  independent  he  is. 
Mr.  Young  had  not  once  written  a  line  to 
Will  at  college,  and  through  Mrs.  Young  had 
only  sent  the  most  formal  messages.  The 
Freshman  concluded  that  his  father  hated 
him.  There  came  a  time  when  he  found 
how  mistaken  he  was. 

One  day,  about  a  week  after  college 
opened — though  it  seemed  to  Young  more 
like  seven  weeks  than  seven  days,  because  he 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

had  seen  and  felt  so  many  new  things  and, 
though  he  was  not  aware  of  it  perhaps,  be 
cause  he  had  developed  so  much — at  any  rate, 
one  afternoon  just  one  week  from  the  time 
he  had  first  met  Channing  and  his  crew, 
Young  heard  about  another  new  thing. 
This,  too,  resulted  in  developing  him  a  good 
deal. 

It  was  a  Wednesday  afternoon,  and  he 
was  on  the  way  across  the  quadrangle  after 
"  English,"  no  longer  feeling  lost  or  out  of 
place  on  the  campus,  for  he  knew  by  this 
time  nearly  all  its  nooks  and  crannies  and 
the  names  of  most  of  the  buildings.  "There 
are  225  acres  in  the  grounds,"  he  had  written 
home  to  Charlie  in  another  cheerful  sound 
ing  letter,  "  and  we  have  over  thirty  build 
ings."  And  he  told  with  pride  something  of 
the  Revolutionary  history  of  Nassau  Hall, 
"the  venerable  brown  building  they  called 
'  Old  North,'  once  the  largest  building  in  this 
hemisphere  and  for  a  time  the  most  impor 
tant."  But  that  was  not  the  reason  he  felt 
so  proud  just  now.  It  was  because  he  was 
walking  beside  little  "  Lucky  "  Lee. 

70 


THE    HERO  OF   THE  BELL-CLAPPER. 
Lee  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  popular  men  in  the  class.— Page  71. 


WORK—  PLAY— "  PROCS  " 

Lee  was  the  class  secretary  and  treasurer, 
and  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  most 
popular  men  in  the  class.  He  had  sprung 
into  considerable  class  prominence  when  he 
sprang  upon  Young's  shoulders  that  night  in 
the  rush.  But  the  next  night  he  climbed 
still  higher  and  into  greater  fame  by  scaling 
the  belfry  of  Old  North  at  dead  of  night, 
where,  with  the  aid  of  Stevens,  his  room 
mate,  he  carried  off  the  bell-clapper,  "  and 
that  was  a  great  thing,  I  tell  you,"  Young 
wrote  home. 

"  Of  course,  no  Freshman  class  would  be 
respected,"  Linton,  the  Junior,  had  explained 
the  next  time  he  and  Nolan  had  come  to 
"talk  hall"  with  Will — who  explained  it 
to  Charlie — "they'd  be  disgraced  if  they 
didn't  steal  the  bell-clapper.  The  college 
authorities  expect  it  to  be  done.  They  have 
a  barrelful  of  new  ones  down  in  the  cellar. 
When  the  rope  is  pulled  and  they  find  the 
bell  doesn't  ring,  they  simply  fork  out  a  new 
clapper  and  climb  up  and  fasten  it  on,  and 
then  start  in  to  ringing  as  though  nothing 
unusual  had  happened." 

71 


THE   ADVENTURES    OF   A    FRESHMAN 

None  the  less  it  was  a  daring  deed,  and 
Lee  and  Stevens  had  come  within  a  small 
margin  of  getting  caught  by  stealthy  Matt 
Goldie,  the  chief  proctor.  But  they  weren't, 
and  the  big  heavy  clapper  was  now  in  the 
city  of  Trenton,  being  melted  down  into 
many  diminutive  souvenir  clappers  (to  be 
worn  as  watch-charms  by  the  whole  class)  at 
this  very  moment,  while  Lee  was  walking 
across  the  campus  and  Young  beside  him 
was  hoping  that  the  fellows  who  called  him 
"  Thank  you,  marm  ! "  could  see  him  now. 

Just  then  "Minerva"  Powelton,  the  re 
cently  chosen  captain  of  the  class  baseball 
team,  joined  Lee  and  Young,  or  rather  he 
joined  Lee ;  he  paid  little  attention  to 
Young.  He  had  been  brought  up  to  keep 
away  from  boys  whose  family  he  knew  noth 
ing  of,  and  he  considered  Young  beneath 
him  in  every  way.  He  got  over  it  in  time. 

"  Say,  Lucky,"  he  said  in  a  low  tone,  put 
ting  his  arm  fawningly  around  little  Lee, 
"the  Sophs  will  be  getting  out  the  procs, 
pretty  soon.  We'd  better  watch  out." 

"  Naw,"  said  Lucky,  with  the  conviction 
72 


WORK— PLAY— "  PROCS  " 

of  superior  knowledge.  "  Not  till  after  Sat 
urday's  game,  at  the  earliest.  Why,  in  my 
brother's  Freshman  year  they  did  not  do  it 
till  after  cane-spree." 

"  Well,  we'd  better  keep  our  eyes  peeled, 
all  the  same,"  said  Captain  Powelton. 

Young  looked  sober  and  said  nothing. 
To  tell  the  truth,  he  did  not  know  what  they 
were  talking  about.  Was  it  that  the  Sophs 
were  going  to  turn  the  college  proctors 
against  them  in  some  cowardly  way  ?  But 
what  Saturday's  baseball  game  between  the 
two  classes  had  to  do  with  it  he  knew  no 
more  than  what  a  cane-spree  might  be ;  and 
he  walked  home  wondering. 

That  evening  at  the  clftb  one  of  the  fel 
lows — who,  perhaps,  had  also  overheard  a 
conversation — said,  in  a  pause,  "  I  understand 
the  Sophs  will  bring  out  the  procs.  pretty 
soon." 

Young  was  not  so  shy  before  his  own 
crowd.  "  No,  they  won't,"  said  he.  "  Not 
until  after  Saturday's  baseball  game." 

"  Why  not,  Young  ?  "  he  was  asked. 

"  What  are  the  procs,  anyway  ?  "  inquired 

73 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

Barrows,  at  the  foot  of  the  table,  who  had 
been  Young's  champion  on  the  first  trip  to 
the  canal.  He  was  a  small,  ingenuous  fellow 
with  a  big  head,  and  had  taken  a  prize  for 
passing  the  best  entrance  examinations  from 
his  State. 

Young  was  about  to  laugh  and  own  up 
that  he  did  not  know,  when  the  Junior  who 
ran  the  club  cleared  his  throat  and  explained. 
He  was  fond  of  instructing  these  Freshmen. 
He  had  been  very  green  himself  two  years 
before,  and  he  knew  how  it  felt.  He  also 
knew  how  impressive  an  upper-classman 
seems  to  the  entering  student. 

"  The  two  lower  classes,"  he  said,  with  a 
great  deal  of  Junior  dignity,  "  always  get  out 
proclamations  on  each  other.  It  is  one  of 
the  customs.  The  Sophs  generally  bring 
theirs  out  first ;  they  are  like  big  bill  posters." 

"  What's  on  them  ?  "  asked  Barrows. 

"  On  them  is  printed  a  lot  of  nonsense  in 
green  type.  They  cast  aspersions  on  you,  call 
you  fresh  and  green  and  heap  ignominy  on 
your  prominent  men  and  deride  your  eccen 
tric  characters." 

74 


WORK— PLAY— "  PROCS  " 

"  Well,  where  do  they  put  them  ?  "  asked 
the  one  who  brought  up  the  subject. 

"All  over  the  State." 

"  What ! " 

"  They  paste  them  all  over  this  town  and 
its  environs,  on  the  blank  walls  and  the  side 
walks,  and  on  every  barn  in  the  county,  on 
wagons,  on  telegraph-poles,  on  freight-cars — 
not  only  that,  but  they  go  off  to  Trenton  and 
New  Brunswick  and  paste  them  all  over  the 
town  and  on  freight  -  trains  about  to  pull 
out." 

"Well!  what  do  we  do  all  this  time?" 
asked  Young.  Everyone  was  listening  now. 

"  Pull  them  down,"  said  the  Junior,  simply, 
"and  soon  afterward  you  get  out  a  proc.  say 
ing  sarcastic  things  about  them,  which  they 
pull  down,  feeling  very  indignant,  and  then 
they  haze  you  worse  than  ever.  Please  hand 
me  the  butter." 

"  But  I  still  don't  see,"  said  Barrows,  the 
small  fellow  with  the  big  head,  "  what  Satur 
day's  baseball  game  has  to  do  with  it  ?  " 

"  They  wait  until  after  that,"  replied  the 
Junior,  smiling,  "  in  order  to  write  verses  on 

75 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

the  score  and  jeer  you  on  being  so  badly 
beaten." 

"  Maybe  we  won't  be  beaten,"  said  Bar 
rows. 

"  I  sincerely  hope  you  won't,"  said  the 
Junior,  benignantly. 

The  series  of  inter-class  baseball  games 
lasting  a  week  had  begun  as  usual  on  the 
Monday  previous.  They  are  played  so  early 
in  the  term  because  football  soon  absorbs  all 
athletic  interest  of  the  fall. 

The  Freshman  class,  which  was  large  and 
had  had  many  aspirants  to  athletic  honors, 
had  barely  had  time  to  pick  out  its  nine,  who 
were,  so  said  the  Junior  class  baseball  cap 
tain  who  was  coaching  the  players,  unusually 
good  material,  but  quite  lacking  in  team  play. 
This  was  only  natural,  as  only  three  of  them 
had  ever  seen  each  other  a  week  before. 

However,  they  made  a  very  good  showing 
against  the  Juniors  on  Tuesday,  and  by  Thurs 
day  they  had  improved  so  much  that  they 
beat  the  lazy  Seniors.  To  tell  the  truth  the 
latter  had  not  put  a  very  ambitious  team  in 
the  field,  and  played  horse  throughout  the 

76 


WORK— PLAY— "  PROCS" 

game.  But  this  encouraged  the  Freshmen 
wonderfully,  and  confidence  was  just  what 
they  needed.  After  the  practice  on  Friday 
afternoon  the  Junior  coach  said,  "  I  think 
you  fellows  will  win  to-morrow — if  you  don't 
get  rattled,"  he  added,  shaking  his  head  and 
thinking  of  his  own  Freshman  year. 

The  Sophomore-Freshman  game  is  the 
concluding  match  of  the  week,  and  is  always 
the  special  event  of  the  series,  owing  to  the 
intense  rivalry  between  the  two  lower  classes. 
It  is  advertised  in  the  bill-posters  in  letters 
twice  as  large  as  the  other  games,  and  many 
alumni  gather  from  New  York  and  Philadel 
phia  to  witness  it,  which  makes  the  two  low 
er  classes  feel  quite  important. 

Great  was  the  excitement  in  the  Fresh 
man  class,  and  great  was  the  hope  of  victory. 
The  Sophomores,  though  they  did  not  show 
it,  were  also  excited,  but  they  were  blatantly 
confident  of  winning.  It  would  be  a  terrible 
ilsgrace  if  they  lost  to  the  Freshmen. 

Soon  after  the  mid-day  meal  on  Saturday 
the  Freshman  class  marched  down  to  Uni 
versity  Field  in  a  body,  and  sat  there  cheer- 

77 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

ing  for  itself  and  its  team  all  the  after 
noon. 

Just  before  the  game  began  the  Sopho 
mores,  in  a  solid  mass  of  orange  and  black, 
making  a  deafening  lot  of  noise  with  college 
songs  on  kazoos,  led  by  a  big  brass  band, 
entered  the  field  with  banners  waving,  took 
possession  of  a  solid  section  of  the  bleachers, 
derided  the  Freshmen,  drowned  out  their 
cheers,  guyed  their  batters,  rattled  their 
pitcher,  and  won  the  game  by  a  score  of  18 
to  7.  That  night  the  country  for  miles  round 
was  scoured  by  faithful  Freshmen.  Not  a 
proclamation  was  found. 

The  next  night  still  a  larger  number  of 
Freshmen  lost  half  of  their  eight  hours'  sleep 
in  the  cause,  and  in  vain. 

The  next  afternoon  Lucky  Lee  whispered 
to  Young,  coming  out  of  mathematics  :  "  The 
Sophomores  get  out  their  procs  to-night,  sure; 
they  are  being  printed  in  Trenton — I  have  a 
detective  down  there  who  found  out  all  about 
it.  I  want  you  to  come  up  to  my  room  in 
University  Hall  this  evening  after  you  have 
finished  your  'poling* — I  mean  studying. 


WORK— PLAY-"  PROCS  " 

Wear  your  old  clothes.  You'll  come,  won't 
you  ?  " 

Young  had  not  been  engaged  in  the  previ 
ous  nightly  searches,  and  he  had  not  intend 
ed  to  join  in  this  one.  But  it  was  Lee. 
"I'll  come,"  said  Young — "soon's  I  get 
through  '  poling/  "  he  added,  for  he  wanted 
young  Lee  to  know  that  he  too  understood 
college  slang,  even  though  he  was  a  quiet 
Freshman.  There  was  something  fascinating 
to  Young  about  that  bright-faced  little  fel 
low.  Everybody  liked  him. 

The  territory  to  be  covered  and  the  men 
to  cover  it  had  been  divided  up  beforehand 
among  a  number  of  leaders,  and  when  Lee 
had  said,  in  talking  it  over  in  Powelton's 
room,  "  I'm  going  to  get  that  man  Young, 
he's  a  big,  strong  fellow,"  Powelton  had  said, 
"  What,  that  big,  awkward  poler  from  the 
backwoods?  —  the  man  everybody  guys? 
Bah !  he  hasn't  any  more  class  spirit  than 
my  pipe." 

Everyone  at  college  is  called  a  student, 
but  a  poler  is  one  who  studies  to  excess. 

"  Poler  or  no  poler,"  answered  Lee,  "  he's 

79 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

got  muscle  all  right,  and  he  stood  by  me  in 
the  rush  in  great  shape  !  " 

Promptly  at  ten  o'clock  Young  slammed 
shut  his  Homer  and  the  Greek  lexicon  and 
started  for  University  Hall,  a  big  rambling 
place  full  of  noisy,  whistling  students  that 
scrape  their  feet  along  the  wide  carpetless 
corridors.  He  had  done  a  good  evening's 
work  for  himself  ;  now  he  was  going  to  work 
for  Lee  and  for  the  class. 

Some  Sophomores  at  the  foot  of  the  third 
flight  of  stairs  said,  "  Quack  !  quack !  Fresh 
men  ! "  as  Young  went  by,  but  he  did  not 
mind  that,  and  they  did  not  dare  do  more  be 
cause  Sam,  the  night  watchman,  was  down 
stairs  in  the  main  hall. 

"  Wasn't  that  Deacon  Young  ? "  said  a 
man  joining  the  group.  "  What  did  you  let 
him  go  by  for  ?  " 

It  was  Channing,  of  course,  and  he  went 
hurrying  upstairs  after  Young,  to  show  off 
how  bold  he  was. 

"  Channing  certainly  has  nerve,"  said  one 
of  them. 

By  the  time  Channing  caught  up,  Young 
80 


WORK— PLAY— "  PROGS  " 

had  turned  down  the  narrow  corridor  which 
led  to  Lee's  room. 

"You'll  have  to  come  back,"  said  Chan- 
ning,  in  a  matter-of-fact  way,  which  made  it 
all  the  more  irritating.  "  Here !  I  said, 
1  come  back.' ' 

Young  might  have  done  it  ordinarily,  but 
he  had  promised  Lee  to  come  to  his  room  at 
ten  o'clock  and  he  was  accustomed  to  keep 
his  word  ;  he  did  not  even  look  around. 

Channing,  catching  up  with  him,  laid  a 
hand  on  his  arm,  and  said,  sneeringly,  "  Come 
back,  or  it'll  be  worse  for  you,"  and  called 
Young  a  name  that  he  should  have  known 
better  than  to  call  anyone  unless  willing  to 
fight  in  consequence. 

For  answer  Young  turned  promptly  about, 
grabbed  the  little  Sophomore  by  the  shoul 
ders,  then  taking  both  wrists  in  one  of  his 
strong  hands  and  shaking  the  other  fist  in 
his  face,  said,  "  You  little  reptile,  you're  too 
small  for  me  to  hurt,  but  I'll  give  you  what 
I  wanted  to  give  you  since  I  first  laid  eyes 
on  you." 

With  that  he  quietly  picked  up  the  small 
li 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

Sophomore,  turned  him  over  his  left  knee 
and  gave  him  a  good  sound  spanking  with 
his  big  right  hand. 

11  There,"  he  said,  holding  Channing  upon 
his  knee  a  moment.  "That's  what  I  think 
of  you.  Now  run  and  tell  everybody."  And 
he  gave  him  a  gentle  push  which  was  not 
as  gentle  as  he  meant  it  to  be. 

Channing  got  up  from  the  floor  hastily, 
looked  about,  saw  that  no  one  was  near,  and 
then  sneaked  around  the  corner  in  a  hurry 
toward  the  stairs.  He  hadn't  said  another 
word.  As  he  drew  near  his  friends  he 
slackened  up  and  began  to  whistle  carelessly. 
"  Couldn't  find  him,"  he  said,  "  the  old  cow 
must  have  heard  me  coming,  and  scooted 
into  some  room."  Inwardly  he  was  thank 
ing  his  stars  he  had  not  been  seen. 

But  he  had  been  seen.  The  door  of  one 
of  the  rooms  along  the  hall  had  been  ajar  ; 
two  upper-classmen  within  had  just  put  out 
their  lights  to  go  to  bed,  the  whole  scene 
had  been  enjoyed,  and  before  Channing  was 
many  days  older  the  whole  college  was  to 
know  the  story. 

82 


WORK— PLAY— "  PROCS  " 

Meanwhile  Young  had  gone  on  to  Lee's 
room,  where  he  said  nothing  about  what  had 
happened.  The  room  was  full  of  Freshmen 
and  when  the  door  opened  they  were  talking 
at  a  great  rate  about  football  in  loud  voices ; 
but  as  soon  as  they  saw  it  was  not  a  Sopho 
more  they  began  to  talk  in  low  tones  about 
the  procs  again. 

Lee  said,  "  I  don't  know  whether  you 
know  all  these  fellows,"  and  began  to  intro 
duce  him  in  an  informal  way. 

"  Oh,  yes,  I  know  Young,"  said  one  of 
them.  It  was  the  football  man  who  had 
been  next  to  him  in  the  rush.  Others  said, 
"  I  know  your  face — how  are  you,  Young  ?  " 
Some  only  nodded  and  then  seemed  to  ig 
nore  him. 

He  felt  a  little  constraint  at  first;  some  of 
these  were  prominent  members  of  the  class, 
and  he  felt  that  they  had  a  poor  opinion  of 
him,  but  presently  they  all  fell  to  talking 
about  their  plans  so  earnestly — and  included 
Young  in  their  glances  occasionally — that 
soon  he  too  began  to  get  excited  like  the  rest 
of  them.  He  felt  the  thrill  of  a  conspirator. 

83 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

But  they  did  not  talk  much  longer,  for 
Lee  said  :  "  Young  and  I  are  going  to  bed. 
You  fellows  had  better  sneak  off  and  get 
some  sleep  too."  He  had  already  begun  to 
undress.  "  You  are  to  sleep  here,  Young," 
he  added  ;  "  my  room-mate  has  gone  to  Tren 
ton  to  start  out  early  from  there." 

The  others  were  leaving — not  all  at  once, 
for  that  would  excite  suspicion  if  any  Sopho 
mores  might  be  passing  by.  They  left  in 
ones  and  twos. 

"  Good-night,  Lucky,  we'll  see  you  later, 
good -night.  Some  of  them  remembered 
to  say  good-night  to  Young,  too.  "  Good 
night,  old  man,"  said  one  of  them,  a  jolly 
fat  fellow. 

Young  did  not  sleep  very  much,  but 
Lucky  was  quite  worn  out  and  dropped  off 
immediately,  and  then  sprang  half  out  of 
bed  when  the  muffled  alarm  clock  went  off 
under  his  pillow.  It  was  four  o'clock. 
They  were  to  meet  the  others  at  a  spot 
on  the  Theological  Seminary  grounds  at 
4.30.  From  there  they  were  to  work  their 
way  down  toward  Trenton  on  the  old  stage- 

84 


WORK— PLAY— "  PROCS  ' 

coach    highway   and    meet    Stevens    (Lee's 
room-mate)  and  the  others  coming  up. 

It  did  not  take  long  to  slip  out  of  the 
room  and  into  the  silent  corridor.  The 
lights  were  all  out.  It  was  dead  dark. 

"Take  hold  of  my  arm,"  said  Lee,  "I 
know  these  corridors  as  well  as  our  own 
house  at  home." 

Their  footsteps  seemed  to  echo  and  re 
echo  as  they  went  down  the  three  flights  of 
stairs. 

The  big  clock  in  the  hall  ticking  loudly 
showed  thirteen  minutes  after  four.  "  We 
have  plenty  of  time,"  whispered  Young,  as 
Lee  opened  the  front  door. 

The  outside  air  was  cold  and  damp  ; 
Young  shivered  as  it  struck  his  face.  He 
was  glad  he  had  put  on  his  blue  flannel  shirt, 
the  one  he  used  to  plough  corn  in.  It  was 
black  outside  except  for  a  symptom  of  dawn 
in  the  East,  which  made  the  darkness  even 
more  ghastly.  Someone  was  walking  some 
where.  They  could  hear  the  footsteps  on 
the  pavement. 

They  reached  the  corner. 
85 


THE    ADVENTURES   OF   A    FRESHMAN 

"  What's  that  ?  "  said  Young. 

"  Where?"  exclaimed  Lee,  in  a  whisper. 
He  was  one  of  the  pluckiest  men  in  the 
class,  yet  he  jumped  back  a  little. 

"There,"  said  Young,  "on  that  tree-box. 
It's  a  proc." 

"  By  George,  you're  right — the  sneaks ! 
They  must  have  begun  early." 

It  was  too  dark  to  make  out  anything  but 
the  first  three  lines  in  big  letters  : 

"ATTENTION! 

YE  FOUL  AND  FOOLISH  FREAKS 
OF   FRESHMEN  !" 

"  It  hasn't  been  up  long,"  said  Young. 
"The  paste  is  still  wet"  He  began  to  tear 
it  down. 

"  They  must  be  near  here,"  whispered  Lee. 
We'd  better  first  go  and  meet " 

"Sist!  who's  that?"  said  a  low  voice  in 
the  darkness. 

The  two  Freshmen  stood  motionless. 

The  voice  now  whispered,  "  Ninety-blank 
this  way."  It  sounded  friendly,  but  the  thing 
for  Young  and  Lee  to  do  was  not  to  wait 

86 


WORK— PLAY— "  PROCS  " 

to  see  whether  it  was  friend  or  foe  but  turn, 
and  run  in  opposite  directions  and  then 
bring  up  afterward  at  their  appointed  meet 
ing-place  where  the  others  were.  That  in 
deed  was  Lee's  impulse,  but,  "Wait,  it's  one 
of  our  fellows,"  said  Young,  innocently,  and 
just  then  several  figures  darted  in  at  them 
and  before  Young  or  Lee  could  do  anything 
more  they  were  surrounded  on  all  sides, 
seized  by  the  arms  and  held  tight. 

"  No  use  scrapping,  fellows,"  said  one  of 
them  in  Young's  ear,  triumphantly.  "  We've 
got  you,  we've  got  you." 

Just  then  the  first  figure  walked  close  up 
to  Young,  turned  the  slide  of  a  detective's 
dark-lantern,  and  remarked,  calmly,  as  the 
dazzling  light  shone  on  Young's  blinking 
eyes:  "Yes,  this  is  the  old  Deacon;  well, 
well,  that's  good  !  that's  good  !  " 

It  wasn't  necessary  to  see  the  face,  Young 
recognized  the  disagreeable,  sneering  voice. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   LAST   HAZING  OF    "  THE   MEEK   BUTT   OF 


ALL  CLASSES" 


IT  was  all  Young's  fault  that  his  little 
friend  Lee  was,  like  himself,  in  the  embarrass 
ing  embrace  of  these  Sophomores,  and  he 
knew  it ;  and  that  worried  him  more  than 
anything  they  might  do  to  himself.  This 
was  a  fine  way  to  repay  Lee  for  his  kindness  ! 

Channing  was  still  sticking  the  lantern  up 
close  to  Young's  blinking  eyes,  and  saying, 
mockingly,  "Well,  well,  you  poor  old  fool 
of  a  Deacon  !  you  poor  old  pathetic  fool." 

If  Young  could  only  jerk  himself  free  he 
thought  he  could  snatch  Lee  away  from  the 
two  Sophomores  holding  him  and  then  in  the 
darkness  they  could  surely  escape.  There 
was  everything  to  gain  and  nothing  to  lose 
in  the  attempt. 

"  Now,"  said  Channing,  "  let's  see  who 
the  other  foolish  Freshman  is." 

88 


"THE    MEEK    BUTT   OF  ALL   CLASSES" 

Then  through  Young's  mind  there  darted 
the  thought:  "  Now's  the  time!  Their  at 
tention  is  diverted."  The  dazzling  light  had 
been  taken  off  his  eyes.  At  the  same  in 
stant,  and  as  quick  as  the  flash  of  the  lantern, 
he  neatly  whisked  his  arms  out  of  the  hands 
that  held  them,  sprang  backward,  throwing, 
as  he  did  so,  the  two  startled  Sophomores 
forward  by  the  shoulders,  and  wheeled  around 
toward  Lee. 

Now  little  Lee,  you  may  be  sure,  was 
watching  for  a  chance  to  make  a  dash  for 
liberty.  Hearing  the  scuffle  of  feet  in  front 
of  him  he  tried  a  similar  trick.  But  his  cap 
tors  also  had  heard  the  scuffle  ;  instinctively 
they  tightened  their  grasps.  Lee  shook  off 
but  one  of  them,  whirled  around,  and  started 
off  ;  the  smaller  of  the  two  Sophomores  was 
hanging  like  a  bull-dog  to  his  left  arm. 

Young,  half-blinded  in  the  change  to  dark 
ness  from  dazzling  light,  bumped  into  Lucky, 
hurriedly  grabbed  him  by  the  free  hand  and 
away  they  dashed.  It  was  not  quite  two 
seconds  from  when  Young  made  his  first 
jump  to  the  time  he  was  going  down  Nassau 

89 


THE   ADVENTURES    OF   A    FRESHMAN 

Street  and  making  good  speed  considering 
that  he  was  pulling  Lee  by  the  left  hand,  who 
in  turn  dragged  unwillingly  with  the  other 
hand  the  Sophomore  whose  knees  were  scrap 
ing  the  flagstones. 

Of  course,  by  this  time  the  other  Sopho 
mores  were  after  them — were  now  only  a  few 
yards  behind  and  were  gaining  at  every 
stride. 

For  about  forty  yards  Young  ran  as  he 
never  ran  before.  The  only  hope  was  that 
the  clinging  Sophomore  would  get  tired  of 
sweeping  Princeton  pavements  with  his 
knees ;  a  moment  more  and  he  would  surely 
drop.  "  Stick  to  him,"  the  other  Sopho 
mores  were  shouting  in  the  dark.  Two  of 
the  pursuers  were  almost  up  to  them.  Lee 
gave  a  furious  wrench.  It  was  a  little  too 
furious.  He  tripped  and  fell.  Young 
slackened  up  and  tried  to  pull  Lee  to  his 
feet,  but  Lee  purposely  loosed  his  hand  and 
cried,  ''I'm  a  goner,  run  !  "  At  that  instant 
two  Sophomores  dropped  on  him  as  they 
would  on  a  rolling  football  and  cut  off  his 
wind. 


"THE    MEEK   BUTT   OF  ALL   CLASSES" 

But  Young  did  not  run — he  turned  around 
to  try  and  free  his  friend — a  third  Sophomore 
running  at  full  speed  tackled  him  furiously, 
as  football  players  tackle.  They  both  tripped 
over  the  bodies  on  the  ground.  Lee  felt 
two  more  men  come  tumbling  down  in  a 
tangle  upon  those  already  on  him. 

"  We  got  'em  both,  fellows,"  screamed  one 
of  the  Sophomores  in  the  darkness  to  the 
others  behind. 

11  Are  you  hurt,  Lee  ?  "  asked  a  voice  near 
the  back  of  his  neck. 

"  How  'dyou — get — in  this?"  Lee  panted. 
"Thought  you  were — block  'way  by — this 
time." 

Young  was  panting,  too,  so  he  only  said, 
"  No — still  here."  He  had  got  Lee  into 
this  mess  and  he  meant  to  stick  by  him. 

The  Sophomores,  keeping  tight  hold  of  Lee 
and  tighter  hold  of  Young,  slowly  arose,  al 
lowing  their  recaptured  prisoners  to  stand  up. 

"  I  hope  you're  not  hurt,  Lee  ?"  asked  one 
of  them  in  a  somewhat  sympathetic  voice. 
He  still  kept  tight  hold  of  the  Freshman, 
however. 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

"  Nope,  I  reckon  not,"  said  Lee,  who 
hadn't  been  playing  football  since  the  age  of 
twelve  for  nothing. 

They  all  leaned  against  the  fence  and 
panted  for  a  moment. 

Young  made  out  nearly  a  dozen  Sopho 
mores  in  the  half-dark. 

Lee  stopped  panting  and  smiled.  "  Well, 
what  are  you  going  to  do  with  us?  "  he  asked, 
grimly. 

"  Shut  up,  Freshman,  that's  our  business," 
said  one  of  them.  It  was  the  same  man 
that  had  asked  Lee  if  he  was  hurt  a  moment 
before. 

"  So,  Deacon,"  said  Channing,  "  you 
wouldn't  come  back  when  we  told  you  to, 
you  old  hay-seed  Deacon  ! " 

Young  knew  what  he  referred  to,  but 
only  looked  sober  and  said  nothing,  as  usual. 

"  Well,  well,"  went  on  Channing,  "  so 
you  two  proc. -hunters  thought  you'd  get 
away,  didn't  you  ?  Too  bad,  too  bad  ; 
teaches  Freshmen  a  good  lesson  :  little  boys 
must  not  be  out  at  night.  It's  not  nice." 

"  Well,  Channing.  where  shall  we  put  these 
92 


"THE    MEEK    BUTT   OF   ALL   CLASSES" 

two  foolish  virgins  ?  "  asked  a  gruff  voice. 
The  dawn  was  coming  in  and  Young  and 
Lee  saw  that  it  was  that  big  Ballard. 

Now,  it  was  customary  on  occasions  of 
this  sort  to  take  all  prisoners  to  some  room, 
generally  right  there  in  University  Hall,  and 
lock  them  up  for  the  rest  of  the  night,  and 
that's  what  the  Sophomores  would  have 
done  in  this  case  but  for  Channing.  "  Put 
them  ! "  replied  Channing,  indignantly,  "  we 
sha'n't  put  them  anywhere  until  we  have 
dealt  out  due  chastisement  for  their  rash 
impudence  in  trying  to  escape  from  their 
lawful  lords  and  masters.  Am  I  not  right  ? 
They  should  make  recompense  for  the 
trouble  they  have  given  us."  It  was  Chan- 
ning's  usual  vein. 

"Aw,  see  here,  Chan,"  said  one  of  the 
others,  "  we've  got  a  lot  of  work  still  to  do 
and  it's  getting  light  already.  We  can't 
stop  to  do  any  hazing.  Let's  lock  them  up 
in  George  Black's  room." 

But  Channing  was  not  going  to  let  this 
opportunity  slip  by  for  getting  square  for 
what  Young  had  done  only  a  few  hours  pre- 
93 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A    FRESHMAN 

vious.  He  did  not  know  that  there  had 
been  witnesses  to  the  spanking — as  yet. 
"  Let  the  prisoners  follow,"  he  said,  and  he 
led  the  way  back  to  the  corner  where  the 
two  parties  had  met. 

Near  by,  on  the  ground  beside  the  iron 
fence,  stood  a  bucket  of  paste,  a  big  brush, 
and  a  roll  of  proclamations.  Young  and 
Lee  had  not  seen  them  before. 

"  Here  are  paste  and  proclamations/'  said 
Channing,  "  and  here  are  strong  hands  and 
willing.  What  is  to  hinder  the  strong  hands 
being  set  to  work  ?  Arise,  Freshmen,  gird 
up  your  loins  and  paste  procs,  for  the  day 
soon  cometh  when  no  man  can  paste." 

"  Right,"  said  the  others,  smiling.  "  Kill 
two  birds  with  one  stone." 

Little  Lee  fairly  gasped  to  himself  :  "  Go 
ing  to  make  us  paste  procs — procs  against 
our  own  class  !  " 

Ballard,  who  had  apparently  just  got  the 
idea  through  his  head,  began  to  laugh,  and 
said,  "  That's  a  good  scheme,  Chan,  haw, 
haw,  haw ! " 

"  Don't   laugh    so   loud,"  said  Channing 

94 


"THE   MEEK    BUTT   OF   ALL   CLASSES" 

"  Come  on,  Freshmen,  that  blank  wall  across 
the  street  is  a  good  place  to  begin." 

They  were  led  across  the  street  to  the 
corner  grocery  store.  A  tight  hold  was 
kept  on  Young  and  Lee  this  time. 

"  Now,  this  is  the  way  it  is  done."  Chan- 
ning  quickly  and  rather  daintily  pasted  up  a 
proclamation. 

By  this  time  it  was  light  enough  for  the 
letters  to  show  green,  and  the  Freshmen  read 
the  thing. 

Up  near  the  top  Lee,  the  class  secretary, 
was  called  "  a  puppy  drum  major "  and 
"  Mamma's  blue-eyed  baby  boy,  the  little  toy 
secretary."  In  the  portion  in  finer  type,  be 
neath  the  slurs  on  the  baseball  team  and  the 
arrogant  prohibitions  against  the  wearing 
of  the  college  colors  and  silk-hats  and  the 
smoking  of  pipes  and  carrying  of  canes, 
Young  spied  his  own  name. 

"  Next  in  the  line  of  freaks,"  it  said,  "will 
amble  that  poor,  meek  butt  of  all  classes, 
Deacon  Young,  the  overgrown  baby  of 
Squeedunk,  who  always  does  everything  you 
tell  him  to,  and  says  '  Thank  you,  marm  ! ' 

95 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

"  That  means  me,"  thought  Young,  scowl 
ing,  as  he  remembered  how  important  he  had 
always  been  considered  by  everyone  out 
at  home.  "  What  would  they  think  of  me 
now,  I  wonder  ?  " 

Channing  had  finished  his  work. 

"  Now  then,"  he  said,  and  unfolded  an 
other  proc.  and  advanced  toward  the  Fresh 
men.  "  Don't  all  speak  at  once,  children  ; 
will  Little  Willie  Young  show  us  how  they 
handle  the  brush  when  they  whitewash  the 
fences  on  the  farm  ?  " 

"  Naw,  let  the  class  secretary  do  it  first," 
interrupted  Ballard,  in  his  rough  voice. 

Though  the  crowd  had  often  hazed  Lee 
they  had  always  found  him  such  a  bright, 
good-natured  little  chap  that  Ballard  was 
never  allowed  to  humble  him  as  much  as 
since  the  rush  he  had  always  wanted  to. 
Here  was  a  fine  chance.  Young  could 
wait ;  it  was  not  much  fun  to  haze  Young, 
anyway,  he  was  so  meek. 

"  Get  to  work  there  now,  Secretary,"  Bal 
lard  shouted  in  his  loud  voice.  He  did  not 
have  brains  enough,  Young  thought,  to  be 


"THE    MEEK    BUTT   OF   ALL   CLASSES" 

sarcastic,  but  he  had  plenty  of  lungs.  "  Close 
in  around  them,  fellows." 

Of  course  the  Freshmen  required  the  use 
of  their  hands  if  they  were  to  paste  procs,  so 
the  two  were  shoved  in  toward  the  wall  and 
the  dozen  Sophomores  with  locked  arms 
formed  a  semi-circle  about  them.  It  would 
be  out  of  the  question  for  the  two  to  try  and 
escape  now. 

Young  and  Lee  were  standing  by  the 
paste-bucket  with  their  backs  to  the  Sopho 
mores,  who  were  about  twelve  feet  away 
from  them. 

"Come,  get  to  work  there,  little  boys," 
said  Channing.  "  You  and  Young  have 
nearly  fifty  more  to  paste  before  breakfast." 

"  Hurry  up  there,"  Ballard  echoed,  shout 
ing  in  a  tone  to  wake  the  neighborhood. 

Just  then  a  lazy  voice  was  heard.  "  Heads 
out !  Sophomores  are  making  Freshmen 
paste  procs  !  heads  out — ,  everybody  look  !  " 
It  was  a  Senior  leaning  from  an  upstairs 
window  of  University  Hall.  He  was  in  his 
pajamas. 

Meantime,  Ballard,  who  loved  to  show  his 

97 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

power,  had  stepped  arrogantly  into  the  ring 
saying,  "  Do  you  hear  what  I  say,  you  little 
fool  !  Pick  up  that  brush  and  get  to  work." 

"  Heads  out,  everybody,  heads  out !  Lots 
of  fun,"  cried  the  sleepy-looking  Senior. 

Windows  began  to  open  and  frowsy  heads 
and  yawning  faces  to  stick  out  from  all  over 
the  University  Place  side  of  the  big  build 
ing. 

Lee  thought,  with  true  loyal  horror,  of 
how,  if  he  should  do  as  Ballard  said,  the 
Sophomores  would  taunt  him  forever  after 
ward.  He  fancied  how  his  own  classmates 
would  feel  about  it  when  they  heard  that 
their  secrectary  had  aided  in  posting  those 
scurrilous  proclamations.  But  what  was 
there  to  do?  He  had  only  one  classmate 
with  him  and  there  were  a  dozen  Sopho 
mores  about  him  —  no,  eleven,  for  the 
twelfth  was  now  standing  close  beside  him, 
shaking  a  big  fist  in  his  face  and  saying, 
"  See  here,  you  little  fool,  are  you  going  to 
do  what  I  tell  you  or  not  ?  " 

Little  Lee  calmly  looked  up  into  Ballard's 
face  and  said,  "  No,  and  you  can't  make  me." 

98 


"THE   MEEK   BUTT   OF   ALL   CLASSES* 

14  You'll  see  whether  I  can  make  you  or 
not,"  returned  Ballard,  and  with  that  he 
grabbed  the  little  fellow  by  the  coat-collar 
and  shaking  him  back  and  forth  roared, 
•'  Now,  you  little  fool,  you  paste  that  proc 
or  I'll  paste  you  on  the  jaw  with  this  fist." 
Possibly  he  really  meant  to  do  it,  but,  at 
any  rate,  he  did  not,  for  just  then  Young 
cried  :  "  No,  you  won't,  Ballard  !  No,  you 
won't !  Don't  you  shake  him  that  way ; 
don't  you  lay  hands  on  him ;  don't  you 
touch  him."  The  voice  was  very  high  and 
earnest. 

"  Yea-a.  Good  enough  for  you,  big  Fresh 
man."  The  upper-classmen  were  becoming 
interested.  By  this  time  in  the  windows 
across  the  street  were  about  twenty  lookers- 
on.  Ballard  knew  that,  and  he  was  a  Sopho 
more.  Young  was  a  Freshman.  He  laughed 
scornfully.  "  What  have  you  got  to  do 
with  it,  you  big,  overgrown  baby  ?  " 

"I'll  show  you  what  I've  got  to  do  with, 
you  big  bully."  Young's  voice  trembled. 
"  Let  go  that  boy,"  and  much  to  everyone's 
astonishment  the  Freshman  took  hold  of  the 

99 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

Sophomore  very  much  as  Ballard  had  hold 
of  Lee. 

At  this,  Ballard,  in  sheer  astonishment 
that  any  Freshman  should  have  the  audacity 
to  touch  him,  Ballard,  the  centre  rush  of  the 
Sophomore  team,  dropped  Lee,  wrenched 
away  from  Young  and  whirled  around  to 
ward  him  with  fist  drawn  up  in  fighting 
position,  dancing  up  and  down,  and  saying, 
"  You  impudent  pup  of  a  Freshman,  you 
impudent  pup ! " 

["  Yea-a !  big  scrap  ! "  shouted  those  up 
stairs — "Aw!  Freshman's  afraid."] 

Now,  Young  considered  himself  the  bet 
ter  man,  but  all  he  wanted  was  to  make  Bal 
lard  let  go  of  Lee,  and  he  had  succeeded. 

["Aw!  Freshman's  bluffed  out  —  too 
bad!"] 

Ballard  had  turned  once  more  toward 
Lee.  "  Get  to  work,"  he  bawled. 

Lee  stood  still. 

Ballard  drew  back  as  if  to  demolish  the 
little  fellow.  "Now,"  he  began — but  just 
then  in  ran  Young.  His  unclenched  hands 
were  stuck  out  awkwardly  in  front  of  him ; 

100 


"THE    MEEK    BUTT   OF   ALL   CLASSES" 

it  made  the  upper-classmen  in  the  windows 
shout  with  laughter;  some  of  the  Sopho 
mores  in  the  ring  giggled  excitedly.  Young 
did  not  hear  it.  He  guarded  off  one  blow, 
was  struck  on  the  chest  by  the  second, 
dodged  the  third  —  and  as  he  ducked,  he 
plunged  in  and  grappled. 

They  clinched  and  began  to  wrench  and 
twist  and  scuffle  about  the  ring ;  the  rest  of 
the  Sophomores  falling  back  to  keep  out  of 
the  way  whenever  the  two  big  fellows  came 
over  too  near  the  edge. 

Now,  Young  was  no  boxer,  but  he  had, 
like  many  another  country  boy,  wrestled  ever 
since  he  first  put  on  trousers,  and  he  had  not 
forgotten  all  his  tricks.  He  made  a  feint  as 
if  to  try  a  hip  throw,  then  slipped  his  arms 
down  on  Ballard,  twisted  his  feet  around, 
threw  his  chin  and  his  weight  forward,  and 
down  they  both  came,  Young  on  top,  while 
the  voices  up  in  University  Hall  yelled  ap 
provingly  :  "  The  Freshman  is  doing  him  ! 
the  Freshman  is  doing  him  ! "  This  made 
Ballard  beside  himself  with  rage. 

But  Young  having  proved  himself  the  bet- 


101 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

ter  man,  released  Ballard  quickly,  jumped  up. 
stepped  across  to  Lee,  and  in  a  sober  man 
ner  was  saying,  "Now,  Lee,  I  think " 

when  a  staggering  blow  from  Ballard's  fist 
on  the  half-turned  face  nearly  upset  Young, 
who  was  entirely  unprepared  for  this  unex 
pected  attack ;  he  might  have  fallen  but  for 
Lee. 

Up  to  this  point  Young,  though  very 
much  in  earnest,  had  been  quite  cool  and  de 
liberate.  But  now,  with  the  cowardly  blow 
stinging  on  his  face,  he  became  infuriated. 
He  turned  and  charged  at  Ballard  like  one 
of  the  bulls  on  his  father's  farm,  with  his 
head  down  and  regardless  of  consequences. 
His  eyes  were  wide  open  and  teeth  set 
His  fury  gave  him  double  strength. 

Paying  no  more  attention  to  Ballard's 
blows  than  to  so  many  raindrops,  he  dived 
down  and  grasped  him  around  the  middle, 
lifted  him  up,  got  him  on  the  right  hip, 
and  whirled  him  over  and  down  upon  the 
ground  between  the  sidewalk  and  the  curb 
stone,  a  full,  clean  throw. 

The  men  up  in  the  windows  were  now 

102 


"THE   MEEK    BUTT  OF  ALL   CLASSES" 

really  excited.  "Good  enough,  Freshman! 
good  enough  !  Served  him  right !  Do  it 
again  ! " 

That  was  just  what  Young,  with  teeth  set 
and  nostrils  distended,  was  proceeding  to  do, 
though  not  because  they  told  him  to,  for  he 
was  now  oblivious  to  everything  but  showing 
Ballard  that  there  was  a  limit  to  hazing  and 
to  Freshman  meekness. 

Up  went  Ballard's  legs  in  the  air  once 
more  with  the  enraged  Freshman's  long, 
strong  arms  locked  tightly  about  him.  And 
again  he  came  down  hard  upon  the  ground. 
And  he  had  barely  got  to  his  feet  when  in 
rushed  the  Freshman  again  with  his  head 
down,  and  for  the  third  time  Ballard  was 
thrown  flat  and  fair.  This  time  it  was  in  the 
gutter,  and  it  was  lucky  for  Ballard  that  it 
was  full  of  leaves,  for  Young  fell  heavily  on 
top  of  him. 

Up  to  this  point  Ballard's  classmates  had 
been  busy  keeping  out  of  the  way  of  his 
whirling  heels.  Now  they  began  to  realize 
that  they  were  becoming  disgraced  ;  some 
thing  must  be  done.  Channing  was  calling, 

103 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

excitedly,  "  Get  in  there,  somebody  ;  don't  let 
a  Freshman  do  that,  fellows,"  while  he  him 
self  kept  well  out  of  the  way. 

Perhaps  they  did  not  admire  Ballard  for 
what  he  had  done,  but  he  was  their  class 
mate.  One  of  the  bigger  fellows  dashed  in 
and  got  Young  by  the  legs  and  began  to 
pull.  Quick  as  a  flash  little  Lee  ran  in 
and  immediately  tripped  him  up.  No  one 
had  been  watching  Lee.  Another  Soph, 
slipped  in  and  pulled  Lee  off.  A  couple  of 
them  held  him.  Then  the  others  began 
grabbing  Young's  arms  and  legs.  He  held 
on  like  a  bulldog.  One  man  was  sitting  on 
his  head.  Two  were  on  his  body.  Ballard 
was  wriggling  and  swearing.  He  got  one 
arm  over  Young's  neck. 

"  Here,  here,  give  the  Freshman  a  show ; 
give  him  fair  play ! "  cried  some  authoritative 
voices.  It  was  some  Juniors  and  Seniors 
hurrying  out  from  University  Hall — some 
half-dressed  and  some  not  dressed  at  all. 

They  ran  across  the  street  and  brushed 
Sophomores  right  and  left,  saying,  "  Get  off 

there — get  off  there,  I  tell  you  ! " 

104 


"THE    MEEK    BUTT   OF   ALL   CLASSES" 

Some  Sophomores  jumped  up ;  others  were 
pulled  off. 

"  Ballard  has  hurt  his  ankle  !  Ballard  has 
hurt  his  ankle — let  him  up."  It  was  Chan- 
ning's  shrill  voice. 

"  Well,  if  he's  hurt  let  him  up,"  said  the 
Juniors.  The  Freshman  was  still  on  top. 

"  Get  off,  Freshman,  you  did  him  ;  Ballard 
has  hurt  his  ankle." 

Young  jumped  up  quickly.  "  Is  he  hurt  ?  " 
he  asked,  panting,  and  looking  around ;  he 
was  amazed  to  see  so  many  people  about 
him.  He  had  an  ugly  bruise  under  his  left 
eye,  where  Ballard  had  hit  him  ;  he  didn't 
feel  it  now. 

Ballard  had  hastily  jumped  up.  He  did 
not  look  at  Young ;  he  did  not  say  a  word. 
He  was  panting  hard ;  he  leaned  on  Chan- 
ning's  arm  and  limped  quickly  and  quietly 
away.  The  other  Sophomores  followed  be 
hind  ;  none  of  them  looked  back.  There 
was  a  dramatic  silence. 

"  He's  not  much  hurt,"  said  a  Junior  who 
knew  Ballard  of  old,  and  he  was  right,  for 
before  the  Sophomores  quite  reached  the 

105 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

corner  Ballard  had  stopped  limping  and  was 
walking  as  well  as  anybody.  "  Say,  Chan- 
ning,"  another  upper-classman  called  after 
them,  "how  about  that  spanking?"  and 
before  the  small  Sophomore  was  out  of  ear 
shot  he  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  the 
upper-classman  begin  a  narration  which  was 
received  with  squeals  and  shouts  of  laughter. 

Meanwhile  Young,  in  the  centre  of  another 
ring,  was  sitting  on  the  curbstone  panting 
like  a  good  fellow.  Lee  was  bending  over 
him  mopping  his  face  with  his  own  hand 
kerchief  and  patting  him  on  the  back  and 
laughing  excitedly. 

"  Are  you  hurt,  old  man  ? "  asked  one  of 
the  Juniors. 

Young  shook  his  head. 

"What's  his  name?"  asked  one  of  the 
others. 

"  Young's  his  name,"  answered  little  Lee, 
proudly,  like  the  exhibitor  of  something  rare. 

"  Well,  he's  a  good  one,"  said  one  of  the 
new  arrivals.  Others  were  hurrying  down 
the  steps  of  University  Hall  and  across  the 
street  every  moment;  they  all  asked  ques- 

106 


"THE   MEEK   BUTT  OF  ALL  CLASSES" 

tions.  Several  of  the  first  arrivals  were 
telling  the  new  arrivals  all  about  it,  with 
gestures. 

"Tried  to  make  the  big  fellow  paste 
procs,"  one  man  was  saying,  while  another 
was  crying :  "  But  you  ought  to  have  seen 
that  beautiful  spanking  last  night !  Oh,  dear ! 
I'll  never  forget  Channing's  look  when  .  .  ." 

The  big  roll  of  proclamations,  by  the  way, 
which  had  been  lying  on  the  ground,  had 
disappeared.  Some  of  the  new  arrivals  were 
Freshmen,  and  Lee,  who  had  hidden  it  under 
his  coat,  gave  it  to  them  to  carry  away.  First 
they  tore  down  all  the  procs  that  were  in 
sight.  A  Junior  picking  up  a  piece  was 
reading  aloud,  "  the  meek  butt  of  all  classes." 

"  This  is  •  the  meek  butt  of  all  classes/ " 
said  Lee,  laughing. 

Young  got  up  from  the  curbstone. 

"Come  on,  Lucky,"  he  said,  "we'll  have 
to  hurry  to  meet  those  other  fellows  on  the 
way  from  Trenton." 

Lee  tried  to  help  him  up ;  Young  would 
not  allow  it.     But  as  they  started  off  Lee 
insisted  on  putting  his  arm  about  him. 
107 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

44  What !  that  big,  awkward-looking  chap  ?  " 
Young  heard  a  new  arrival  ask  one  of  the 
others.  Then  just  as  they  reached  the  corner 
Lee  and  Young  suddenly  heard  : 

4<  Ray,  ray,  ray  I  Tiger,  siss,  boom,  ah  1 
4 Meek  butt  of  all  classes! '"  It  was  the 
Juniors  giving  a  cheer  for  him  in  the  early 
dawn. 

Lee  turned  around  and  waved  his  hand  at 
them.  Young  blushed,  but  did  not  turn 
his  head.  Lee  reached  up  and  lifted  Young's 
hat  to  them,  which  made  the  others  laugh. 
It  made  Young  laugh  a  little,  too.  Then 
they  turned  the  corner  and  were  out  of  the 
crowd. 

Before  curfew  rang  in  Old  North  at  the 
close  of  that  day  the  whole  college  was  talk 
ing  about  it :  "  Big  green  Freshman  .  .  . 
thought  he  didn't  dare  say  his  soul  was  his 
own  .  .  .  That  irrepressible  little  Chan- 
ning,  first  .  .  .  worm  turned  .  .  .  yes,  on 
the  third  floor  of  University — Bob  Ellis 
saw  the  whole  thing  himself  .  .  .  caught 
big  Freshman  this  morning  with  Lee — yes, 
that  nice  little  fellow  .  .  .  Sophs  under- 

108 


"MEEK    BUTT    OF   ALL    CLASSES!" 

Before  curfew  rang  in  Old  North  at  the  close  of  that  day,  the 
whole  college  was  talking  about  it. — Page  108. 


"THE    MEEK    BUTT   OF   ALL   CLASSES" 

took  to  make  him  paste  procs — no,  Lee 
first.  .  .  .  Little  one  was  game.  .  .  .  Big 
Bally — yes,  went  at  Lee.  .  .  .  Big  Fresh 
man  turned  on  Bally — Bally  punched  him — 
um,  right  up  here,  under  eye,  a  nasty  one — 
then  big,  meek  Freshman.  .  .  .  Oh,  my  ! 
lovely ! " 

Only  in  the  telling  it  became  twenty  or 
thirty  Sophomores,  and  it  was  over  a  fence 
that  Ballard  was  thrown. 

Deacon  Young  was  a  hero  now. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

HOW    IT    FEELS   TO    BE    A    HERO 

SEVERAL  weeks  had  passed  since  Deacon 
Young  had  become  a  class  hero,  and  a  great 
many  things  had  happened. 

The  Freshmen  had  published  and  posted 
their  own  proclamations  since  then  (with  a 
good  crack  on  a  man  named  Ballard),  and 
the  Sophomores  had  torn  them  down,  long 
ago.  The  Ninety-blank  class  football  team 
had  been  started,  and  Young  was  trying  for 
the  position  of  right  guard — and  finding  foot 
ball  not  so  much  a  matter  of  mere  muscle  as  it 
looked  ;  the  class  glee  club  had  been  organ 
ized  ;  a  great  many  friendships  had  begun ; 
nearly  everybody  had  joined  Whig  or  Clio 
Hall  (whether  they  cared  to  debate  or  not)  ; 
and  they  were  all  becoming  thoroughly  accus 
tomed  to  being  at  college  and  had  begun  to 
love  it.  But  Freshman  Young  was  not  yet 

no 


HOW   IT   FEELS  TO    BE   A    HERO 

accustomed  to  having  people  treat  him  with 
so  much  consideration,  and  he  did  not  know 
quite  what  to  make  of  it. 

It  was  still  amazing  to  him  that  such  a 
comparatively  small  matter  could  make  such 
a  difference  in  the  way  he  was  regarded. 
One  day  he  was  the  most  obscure  and  de 
spised  man  in  the  Freshman  class,  and  the  next 
day — he  was  the  most  talked  of  character  on 
the  campus.  He  did  not  wake  up  to  find 
himself  famous ;  he  had  become  famous  all 
in  a  minute,  before  he  had  a  chance  to  go  to 
sleep.  Ever  since,  it  had  been,  "  How  are 
you,  old  man,"  from  the  very  ones  who  used 
to  laugh  and  say,  "  Here  comes  'Thank  you 
marm.' "  Prominent  fellows  in  the  class  who 
formerly  merely  nodded  to  him,  said,  "  You 
must  drop  up  to  my  room  some  evening." 
The  Sophomores  bothered  him  no  more  ; 
Channing  and  Ballard — somehow  they  were 
always  looking  in  the  other  direction  when 
Young  met  them  on  the  walk.  Even  upper- 
classmen  said,  "  Hello  there,  Young,"  conde 
scendingly  but  pleasantly,  and  that  fellow 
Linton  stopped  him  one  day  and  congratu- 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

lated  him.  "  Only,"  he  added,  puffing  his 
pipe,  "only  don't  get  stuck  on  yourself, 
Young." 

"  Hello-o-o,  Deacon,  hold  up  a  minute," 
called  Minerva  Powelton  one  day  on  the  way 
from  Recitation  Hall.  "  Say,  Deacon,  old 
man,  come  over  to  my  room,  I  want  to  talk 
to  you."  He  threw  an  arm  carelessly  over 
one  of  the  Deacon's  good  shoulders. 

"  It's  about  something  important,"  he  said 
in  an  undertone  as  they  passed  between  the 
Bulletin  Elm  and  Old  Chapel,  where  the 
crowd  was  always  thickest.  More  than  one 
Freshman,  looking  on,  wished  he  could  be  on 
such  familiar  footing  with  Young.  There 
were  others  who  wished  they  could  be  thus 
sought  out  by  Powelton. 

It  was  right  here,  Young  remembered, 
Powelton  put  this  same  arm  in  the  same  way 
about  Lee  that  day  he  first  heard  about  the 
proclamations.  Powelton  ignored  Young 
that  day.  But  that  was  before  the  Ballard 
episode. 

"  Deacon/'  said  Powelton,  when  they  had 
reached  the  latter's  room — everyone  called 

112 


IIO\V    IT    FEELS   TO    BE   A    HERO 

him  "  Deacon  "  now,  and  he  liked  it — "  a 
crowd  of  us  fellows  are  getting  up  a  new 
eating-club,  so  we  can  all  be  together;  at 
present,  you  know,  the  gang  is  scattered  all 
over  town.  We  thought  we'd  go  some  place 
where  we  could  have  an  extra  room  to  loaf 
and  read  the  papers  in,  like  the  upper- 
class-men  clubs,  besides  getting  better  grub, 
even  if  we  have  to  pay  a  little  more  for  it. 
There'll  be  Lucky,  of  course,  and  Stevie  and 
Todd — Polk  would  come,  only  he  has  been 
taken  to  the  'Varsity  training  table  "  (that 
was  the  football  man  who  was  next  to  Young 
in  the  rush),  "  and  White,  and,  well  the 
whole  gang  of  us,  you  know,  and  we  want 
you  to  join  us.  It's  the  best  crowd  in  the 
class,  all  right  enough,  even  if  I  do  say  it 
myself." 

"  Much  obliged  for  asking  me,"  Young 
interrupted,  "  but  I  can't  afford  it." 

A  few  weeks  ago  Young  would  have  given 
some  other  excuse,  or  would  have  blushed 
and  hemmed  and  hawed  before  he  got  out 
this  one.  And  a  few  weeks  before,  the 
other  Freshman  might  not  have  known  how 

"3 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

to  reply  to  it:  but  they  had  both  gained 
some  new  ideas  since  they  came  to  college, 
and  also  had  lost  some  old  ones,  which  is 
equally  important. 

"  Lucky  told  me  you  were  hard  up  this 
year,"  Powelton  said,  as  if  he  were  often 
equally  hard  up  himself.  "  As  I  was  going  on 
to  ask,  what  would  you  say  to  managing  the 
club — would  you  mind  the  bother?  Then 
it  wouldn't  cost  you  a  cent.  It  wouldn't  be 
much  bother.  Somebody's  got  to  run  it,  and 
we  want  somebody  that's  congenial.  Come 
on,  won't  you  ?  " 

"  Well,  Minerva,"  said  Young,  finally,  "  I'll 
think  about  it  and  tell  you." 

"That's  right.  Think  it  over.  YouVe 
got  a  week  to  make  up  your  mind  in.  So 
long." 

"  Thank  you  for  asking  me.     Good-by." 

Young  had  no  objections  to  managing  a 
club  ;  that  was  not  the  reason  he  hesitated. 
It  was  because  he  did  not  agree  with  Powel 
ton  that  the  fellows  named  were  the  best 
crowd  in  the  class.  In  fact,  he  did  not  ap 
prove  of  most  of  them,  and  some  of  them 
114 


HOW   IT   FEELS   TO    BE   A   HERO 

seemed  not  to  realize  what  they  had  been 
sent  to  college  for. 

He  walked  on  to  his  room,  debating  the 
matter,  and  finally  wrote  a  letter  to  his 
mother. 

"  DEAR  MOTHER: 

".  .  .  The  sixteen  fellows  composing  the  proposed 
club  are  the  most  prominent  men  in  the  class.  It  is  a 
great  compliment  to  be  asked  to  join  them,  I  suppose, 
and  what  is  more  important,  I  should  be  saving  money 
by  it.  But  although  they  are  all  nice  to  me,  I  do  not 
altogether  like  them — except  that  little  fellow,  Lee,  I 
told  you  about,  and  one  or  two  others. 

"To  be  sure,  I  do  not  know  much  about  them,  but  I 
know  enough  to  know  they  do  not  study  much — or 
1  pole,'  as  we  call  it — and  more  than  that,  some  of 
them — well,  I  don't  think  you  would  like  them.  Now 
my  friends  at  my  present  eating-club  all  study  hard  and 
have  a  definite  aim  in  life.  They  are  helpful  and  con 
genial  friends.  I  should  not  like  to  leave  them.  They 
say  they  would  hate  to  have  me  go,  too.  But  they  also 
say  I  would  be  foolish,  for  financial  reasons,  not  to  ac 
cept  the  offer." 

When  Mrs.   Young  read  this  letter,  she 
at  first  wanted  to  say,  "  keep  out  of  fast  com 
pany,  whatever  you  do  ! "     But   on  second 
thoughts  she  saw  that  if  Will  did  not  em 
us 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

brace  this  opportunity  he  might  not  be  able 
to  stay  in  college  at  all — and  as  for  the  new 
associates,  she  knew  that  her  boy  was  no 
weakling.  Finally  she  agreed  with  Will's 
friends  that  he  would  be  foolish  to  let  the 
chance  go  by,  and  wrote  immediately,  say 
ing  so.  "  And  your  own  conduct  will  be  a 
good  example  to  the  others,"  she  wrote. 

Will  had  already  made  up  his  mind  that 
way  before  receiving  this  letter,  and  felt  so 
glad  and  relieved  about  it  that  he  played 
very  well  at  right  guard  that  day ;  twice  he 
broke  through  and  stopped  the  opposing 
quarter-back  from  passing  the  ball,  and 
was  duly  applauded  by  those  watching 
from  the  terrace  behind  Witherspoon  Hall. 
He  was  commended  even  by  Nolan,  the 
Junior  who  coached  the  team.  "  Now  that 
you're  learning  to  use  your  weight,"  said 
Nolan,  "  you're  improving  a  little.  By  next 
year  you  will  know  something  about  the 
game  ;  by  Junior  year  you  might  run  a  chance 
of  making  the  'Varsity."  And  this  was  a 
good  deal  for  a  reserved  man  like  Nolan  to 
say,  and  quite  enough  to  make  Young's 

116 


HOW   IT   FEELS   TO    BE   A    HERO 

heart  beat  faster,  though  it  was  going  pretty 
fast  already  from  the  hard  exercise. 

"  Wait  a  minute,  Young,"  said  the  Fresh 
man  captain,  "  we're  going  to  let  you  stay  at 
right  guard.  Come  up  to  my  room  to-night 
and  get  measured  for  your  suit."  This  meant 
that  he  was  no  longer  trying  for  the  Fresh 
man  eleven,  but  had  earned  his  place  upon 
it.  So  he  dog-trotted  back  to  his  room,  feel 
ing  exuberant  and  strong  and  hopeful,  and 
very  glad  that  he  had  determined  to  run  the 
new  club.  "Well,  it's  beginning  to  look 
now  as  if  I  might  get  through  the  year,"  he 
said  to  himself  as  he  jogged  along.  "  Haven't 
any  board  to  pay  now,  and  if  I  get  through 
this  year,  I  guess  I  can  manage  as  a  Soph 
omore  all  right.  There's  the  Freshman 
$200  prize — I  run  a  chance  at  winning  that 
at  the  end  of  the  year;  and  I'll  still  have  this 
club  next  year.  I'll  still  have  tuition  remit 
ted.  Perhaps  I  can  get  one  of  those  rooms 
in  Old  North :  the  rent  is  free  there,  and  the 
rooms  are  big,  too ;  and  maybe  I  can  get 
some  newspapers  to  correspond  for,  or  else 
I  can  get  some  tutoring.  Oh,  I'll  manage 
117 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A    FRESHMAN 

somehow,  all  right,  if  I'm  careful.  Then, 
what'll  father  say  ?  " 

Panting  and  perspiring  he  hurried  up 
stairs  to  his  room,  sponged  off  and  rubbed 
down  with  witch-hazel,  put  on  dry  clothes, 
and  then  walked  over  to  the  club — the  old 
club  still ;  the  new  one  was  not  to  begin  till 
next  week — glowing  and  glad  to  be  alive. 

They  all  shouted,  "  Yea-a-a,  Deacon  ! "  at 
him  when  he  came  in,  and  jumped  up  to 
congratulate  him  on  making  the  team  and 
pounded  him  on  the  back,  for  Barrows  had 
overheard  what  the  captain  said.  Young 
could  tell  from  their  manner  that  they  were 
genuinely  glad  of  his  success. 

After  eating  a  huge  meal  with  his  con 
genial  clubmates  he  returned  to  his  room, 
spent  a  studious  evening  with  Xenophon, 
went  to  bed  and  slept  like  a  bear,  or  rather 
like  a  healthy  young  athlete  that  is  in  per 
fect  condition  and  has  a  clear  conscience. 
Oh,  these  were  happy  days  ! 

The  next  day  Young  made  the  arrange 
ments  with  a  woman  in  Nassau  Street  who 
was  famous  for  good  cooking,  secured  two 

It! 


i 


HOW   IT   FEELS  TO   BE   A   HERO 

fine  front  rooms,  subscribed  for  a  number  of 
New  York  and  Philadelphia  daily  papers, 
and  showed  Powelton,  the  president  of  the 
club,  and  the  other  members  of  the  Board 
of  Directors,  how  skilful  he  was  in  business 
affairs.  His  experience  in  the  bank  helped 
him  here. 

On  the  following  Wednesday  he  took  his 
place  at  the  head  of  the  table.  "The  In- 
vincibles  "  the  club  called  itself,  and  they  had 
a  dignified  negro  waiter  and  they  dined  in 
the  evening,  and  it  all  seemed  very  fine  and 
luxurious  to  Young.  He  missed  Barrows 
and  old  Jim  Wilson,  the  long,  thin  fellow 
who  was  studying  for  the  ministry,  and  he 
felt  a  little  abashed  at  first  before  these  more 
noisy,  jolly  fellows.  He  was  afraid  they 
would  think  him  very  green. 

But  they  respected  him  all  the  more  for 
being  quiet,  and  his  soberness  of  mien,  which 
had  formerly  made  him  ridiculous,  now 
/mpressed  these  fellows  as  something  fine. 
They  were  younger  than  he. 

"  He  doesn't  say  much,"  one  of  them 
remarked  after  the  first  day  at  the  new  club. 

119 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

"  No,"  said  another,  "  but  when  the  time 
comes  he  can  act." 

"  He's  matured,  and  has  reserved  strength 
and  all  that.  You  can  see  it  in  his  face." 
That  was  Lucky  Lee,  who  had  reason  for 
admiring  Young's  strength. 

Naturally  it  was  quite  flattering  to  Young 
— and  so  it  would  be  to  you  or  me — to  find 
these  fellows  of  whom  he  had  been  half 
afraid,  treating  him  as  if  they  were  half  afraid 
of  him.  He  could  not  help  discerning  how 
pleased  some  of  the  younger  members  were 
to  find  themselves  walking  to  chapel  or 
recitation  with  the  right  guard  of  the  class 
team — "the  man  that  did  up  Ballard."  Nor 
could  he  help  being  pleased  at  it. 

And,  Young  soon  decided,  they  were  not 
such  a  bad  lot  as  he  had  at  first  thought. 
Undoubtedly  they  were  not  a  poling  crowd 
and  perhaps  some  of  them  were  "  sporty," 
but  not  so  many  of  them  as  he  had  feared. 
College  was  a  great  place  to  broaden  your 
mind,  he  concluded. 

However,  as  he  remarked  to  some  of  his 
former  clubmates,  when  they  asked  how  he 

120 


HOW    IT    FEELS   TO    BE   A    HERO 

liked  the  new  crowd :  "  They  may  be  doing  a 
great  many  things  when  I'm  not  around  that 
I  don't  know  anything  about.  Sometimes 
at  the  other  end  of  the  table  they  make 
references  to  things,  and  they  seem  not  to 
want  me  to  understand.  I  know  the  other 
day  when  I  came  in  late  from  football  prac 
tice,  I  heard  one  of  'em  say,  *  Shut  up,  Billy, 
here  comes  the  Deacon  ! ' ' 

And  this  shows  why  Wilson,  the  man 
studying  for  the  ministry,  told  Young,  when 
alone,  "  Deacon,  you  have  an  excellent  op 
portunity  for  exercising  a  steadying,  sober 
ing  influence  upon  that  set  of  gay,  thought 
less  fellows — they  all  respect  you  heartily." 

The  Divisional  examinations  came  along 
soon  after  the  organization  of  the  club,  and 
Young  was  in  great  demand  by  those  taking 
the  academic  course  like  himself.  Few  of 
the  Invincibles  had  studied  conscientiously 
during  the  preceding  weeks.  They  had 
rather  prided  themselves  on  not  being 
"  greasy  polers "  as  they  called  fellows  like 
Young's  former  clubmates,  but  now  they 


I2X 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A   FRESHiMAX 

were  all  poling  at  a  great  rate  themselves, 
and  some  of  them  declared  they  would  not 
get  through,  though  to  Young's  amazement 
they  seemed  not  to  care  whether  they  were 
to  be  conditioned  or  not ;  they  considered  it 
a  joke. 

Perhaps  one  or  two  of  them  would  not 
have  passed,  if  it  had  not  been  for  Young. 
"  The  old  Deacon  is  a  valuable  man  to  have 
around,"  said  Billy  Drew.  Most  of  them 
landed  in  the  lower  divisions,  but  one  of  them 
proved  quite  a  wonder  to  Young.  His 
name  was  Todd,  and  he  had  never  opened  a 
book,  apparently,  since  the  term  began.  To 
Young's  knowledge  he  took  long  walks  into 
the  country — up  over  the  hills  to  the  north 
of  town — every  afternoon  after  examination 
instead  of  studying,  and  invariably  he  was 
the  first  to  finish  his  paper  and  leave  the 
examination-room.  And  yet  when  the  lists 
of  divisions  were  posted,  much  to  everyone's 
surprise,  Todd's  name  was  in  the  First  divis 
ion — along  with  Young's. 

They  jokingly  called  him  "  Poler  Todd," 
and  made  him  treat  the  whole  club  to  cigars 

122 


HOW   IT   FEELS   TO    BE  A    HERO 

on  the  way  back  from  dinner.  Apparently 
he  was  as  much  surprised  as  anyone,  but  he 
seemed  not  to  care  very  much,  and  the  digni 
fied  Deacon  did  not  know  what  to  make  of 
him.  Young  himself  felt  very  much  grati 
fied  over  his  success  and  wrote  home  to  the 
minister  about  it,  and  confided  to  him,  that 
he  was  going  to  try  to  capture  the  Freshman 
First  Honor  prize.  The  minister  wrote  back 
a  fine,  long  letter,  wishing  him  success  and 
congratulating  him  on  his  progress,  and  also 
upon  his  making  the  team.  Will  had  no 
idea  the  minister  would  be  so  pleased  over 
athletic  success. 

So,  every  day  now  it  was,  "  Deacon,  how 
many  lines  of  Homer  do  we  have  to-day?" 
"  How  do  you  demonstrate  this,  Deacon  ?  " 

At  first  he  liked  to  have  them  appeal  to 
him,  but  after  awhile  it  became  a  little  tire 
some  ;  not  that  he  minded  the  trouble — it 
was  no  trouble ;  but  he  did  not  like  to  be 
thought  of  only  as  a  man  who  always  knew 
where  the  lesson  was.  He  began  to  wish 
they  would  treat  him  more  in  the  hail-fel 
low  well-met  way  they  treated  each  other. 

123 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A    FRESHMAN 

With  Todd,  for  instance,  they  were  as  famil 
iar  and  free  and  easy  as  they  were  with  Billy 
Drew,  and  yet  Todd  was  a  First  division 
man,  like  Young.  Sometimes  he  found 
himself  watching  them  after  dinner,  and  it 
was  a  matter  of  wonder  to  him  how  Todd 
could  always  answer  Powelton  back,  with  a 
witty  piece  of  repartee,  quick  as  a  flash,  with 
out  looking  up  from  the  dessert-plate  at 
which  he  was  aiming  tobacco-smoke.  Some 
how,  Will  thought,  he  would  like  to  be  able 
to  do  that  way. 

The  truth  was  they  did  not  dare  to  be 
familiar  with  Young  ;  they  respected  him  too 
much.  Sometimes  he  felt  tired  of  cold  re 
spect  and  wanted  warm  liking. 

You  see  he  was  a  hero  to  these  boys. 
You  and  I  know  that  he  was  made  of  flesh 
and  blood,  and  weakness  and  strength,  like 
the  rest  of  us. 


124 


CHAPTER   IX 

A   QUESTION    OF    MONEY 

THE  great  Yale-Princeton  football  game, 
which  took  place  during  the  Thanksgiving 
holidays  in  New  York,  was  now  a  matter  of 
history — and  of  rejoicing,  to  one  side.  But 
as  all  those  interested  in  football  know 
which  side  won  the  championship  that  year, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  recount  the  game  and 
rub  it  into  the  losers. 

Everyone,  almost,  had  gone  to  see  the  great 
contest  and  to  cheer  for  the  team,  and  Prince 
ton  seemed  as  deserted  as  in  mid-summer. 
The  Invincibles  secured  a  huge  four-in-hand 
coach  and  were  half  frozen  driving  up  Fifth 
Avenue  to  the  game  ;  but  they  had  the  privi 
lege,  granted  to  Freshmen  on  such  occasions 
only,  of  wearing  the  sacred  orange  and  black 
— yards  of  it,  hung  all  over  their  hats,  their 
clothes,  the  coach,  the  driver,  and  the  horses. 
125 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

They  cheered  themselves  voiceless,  and  had 
a  time  they  were  never  to  forget. 

The  Freshman  team  had  played  the  Colum 
bia  University  Freshmen  in  the  morning,  and 
had  no  difficulty  in  defeating  them  by  a  large 
score.  Right  Guard  Young  put  up  a  very 
fair,  steady  game,  the  critics  said,  but  had  no 
chance  to  make  any  brilliant  play,  as  he  had 
hoped. 

But  the  Deacon  felt  very  big  and  impor 
tant  when  his  exultant  classmates  ran  out  at 
the  close  of  the  game  and  carried  him  and 
the  rest  of  the  eleven  off  the  field  on  their 
shoulders,  cheering  for  each  player  by  name. 

He  felt  less  important  in  the  afternoon, 
when  the  great  contest,  the  event  of  the  day, 
took  place ;  he  wondered  if  many  of  those 
flocking  in  realized  that  he  was  Right  Guard 
Young  of  the  Freshman  team  ;  again  he 
feared  that  he  looked  like  the  big  green 
farmer  that  he  did  not  want  people  to  think 
he  was. 

The  enormous  grand-stands  and  bleachers, 
and  the  coaches  and  carriages,  and  even  the 
neighboring  houses  were  jammed  with  thou- 

126 


A   QUESTION   OF   MONEY 

sands  and  thousands  of  eager  human  beings, 
wearing  violets  or  chrysanthemums ;  and 
some  of  the  old  grads  had  come  from  as  far 
as  the  Pacific  coast  to  see  this  manly  match 
which  was  to  decide  the  championship  of  the 
two  best  foot-ball  teams  in  the  western  hemi 
sphere.  Young  had  never  before  seen  so 
many  people  at  once — "  more  than  the  popu 
lation  of  the  whole  county  you're  in,"  he 
wrote  to  his  brother  Charlie — and  never  be 
fore  had  he  been  so  thrilled  as  when  long 
Jack  Stehman  made  his  famous  tackle  after 
that  Yale  half-back  had  dodged  past  all  the 
rest  of  the  Princeton  team.  .  .  .  But  the 
game  and  its  noise  and  victory  and  defeat 
were  all  over  now,  and  the  two  universities 
had  returned  to  go  on  where  each  had  left 
off  before  Thanksgiving. 

Big  Freshman  Young  had  to  go  on  along 
very  pleasant  lines,  enviable  lines  they 
seemed  to  many  a  Freshman  who  longed  in 
vain  to  be  prominent  and  popular,  and  a 
member  of  the  dashing  Invincibles  ;  but  the 
Deacon  had  his  worries.  It  had  been  verv 
127 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

fine  at  first  to  be  looked  up  to  and  admired, 
but  the  novelty  had  worn  off  by  this  time, 
and  he  had  been  hoping  and  hoping  that  his 
table-mates  would  soon  begin  to  act  toward 
him  in  the  same  easy,  familiar,  good-fellow 
way  they  acted  toward  each  other.  Why 
they  had  not,  he  failed  to  understand  ;  he 
knew  it  wasn't  because  he  was  poor  and  ran 
the  club  ;  he  wondered  if  it  was  because 
he  had  not  prepared  for  college  at  a  large 
school,  and  hence  was  green  and  ignorant  of 
the  ways  of  the  world.  That  was  one  of  the 
things  that  had  off  and  on  worried  him,  but 
that  was  not  the  worst ;  that  was  not  what  was 
making  him  stay  awake  at  night  thinking. 
It  was  that  alarming  question  of  money  bob 
bing  up  again. 

He  had  supposed  that  with  the  club  to  run, 
which  wiped  out  the  largest  item  of  expense, 
he  would  have  enough  to  worry  along  with 
until  something  else  turned  up.  But  his  ac 
count  in  the  Princeton  bank  was  slowly  but 
surely  being  drained,  and  thus  far  nothing 
had  turned  up. 

He  had  intended  to  be  more  economical, 
128 


A   QUESTION    OF   MONEY 

but — well,  for  instance,  the  other  Invincibles 
were  always  "  blowing  in  "  money  for  spreads 
in  their  rooms  and  all  that ;  and  Young  did 
not  like  to  accept  favors  without  returning 
them.  To  be  sure  he  might  have  declined 
their  invitations  occasionally,  but  he  wanted 
to  show  them  that  the  "dignified  Deacon," 
as  they  called  him,  was  not  so  terribly  digni 
fied  and  stiff,  as  they  seemed  to  think.  Then, 
too,  when  subscription  lists  were  passed 
around  for  various  purposes,  and  they  came 
to  him  among  the  first  as  "  one  of  the  influ 
ential  men  of  Ninety-blank,"  he  felt  that 
he  ought  to  do  his  share  ;  "  it's  my  duty  to  the 
good  old  class,"  he  said,  "  I  hate  stinginess, 
anyway." 

As  a  matter  of  fact  he  had  been  doing 
more  than  his  share,  and  it  was  the  appear 
ance  of  stinginess,  possibly,  that  he  hated 
even  more  than  stinginess  itself. 

Now,  he  might  easily  have  said  :  "  Here,  I 
can't  afford  this  pace  ;  you  fellows  get  money 
from  home — I  have  to  earn  mine,  and  so, 
much  as  I'd  like  to,  I  simply  can't  keep  step 
with  you — and  that's  all  there  is  about  it ; " 

129 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

he  would  have  been  liked  none  the  less  and 
respected  all  the  more.  "  Why,  certainly  ; 
you  are  dead  right,"  they  would  have  said. 
But  he  did  not  want  to  ;  he  preferred  to 
keep  step,  and  did  not  like  them  to  know 
how  little  money  he  had.  It  was  nothing  to 
be  ashamed  of,  surely.  It  was  not  on  ac 
count  of  money,  as  his  own  experience  had 
shown  him,  that  a  man  became  popular  or 
prominent. 

More  money  had  gone  when  he  went  to 
New  York  at  Thanksgiving  time.  His  ex 
penses  up  and  back  were  paid,  of  course,  by 
the  Freshman  foot-ball  fund,  but  Lucky  Lee 
had  invited  him  to  stay  over  Sunday  at  his 
home  there ;  and  Young  felt  ashamed  of  his 
cut-away  coat — though  Lucky  said,  "  Non 
sense  " — and  so  he  bought  something  which 
he  considered  very  magnificent  at  a  large 
ready-made  place  on  Broadway,  together  with 
some  brilliant  neckties,  something  like  Billy 
Drew's,  and  a  huge  scarf-pin  (but  decided 
not  to  tell  his  mother  how  much  they  all 
cost,  in  the  letter  describing  what  a  good 
time  he  had  and  how  nice  Mrs.  Lee  was). 

130 


A  QUESTION   OF   MONEY 

So,  altogether,  with  the  new  term  staring 
him  in  the  face,  and  room-rent  to  pay,  and 
books — though  that  was  a  small  item  com 
pared  to  what  he  had  "  blown  in  "  foolishly 
— it  was  beginning  to  look  as  if  Deacon 
Young  would  have  to  hustle  if  he  meant  to 
stay  in  college  much  longer.  "  We'll  see 
how  long  you  stay  there,"  his  father  had  said. 

"All  right,"  thought  Will,  "  we'll  see! 
More  fellows  earn  their  way  through  college 
than  the  people  out  home  have  any  idea  of, 
and  I  think  I'm  as  good  as  the  next  man. 
I'll  talk  to  Barrows  and  Wilson  and  some  of 
those  quiet  fellows  about  it." 

But  it  was  all  very  well  to  say :  "  Why, 
there's  Dougal  Davis  in  the  Junior  class 
who  commands  $2.50  an  hour  for  tutoring, 
and  there's  Harris,  the  Senior,  who  some 
times  makes  as  much  as  $20  in  a  week 
writing  for  the  New  York  and  Philadelphia 
papers  ; "  it  was  easy  enough  to  point  out 
how  many  men  made  money  in  various  other 
ways  ;  no  doubt  many  did  ;  but  that  was  just 
the  trouble —so  many  did  that  all  the  oppor 
tunities  seemed  to  be  snapped  up  already. 
131 


THE   AD\  ;  N     .         -    OF   A    FRESHMAN 

they  had  to  do  to  get  money  was  to  open 

envelopes  and  then  sign  their  names*  "  ! 
fellc  -  ^img  used  to  think  as  he  watched 
them — "  You  fellows  don't  know  how  lucky 
you  are."  But  of  course  he  said  nothing 
to  them  of  what  worried  him.  He  was 
not  that  kind.  They  had  great  respect  for 
his  abilities  and  thought  he  could  do  any 
thing.  They  did  not  guess  what  was  going 
on  in  his  mind  these  days,  while  they  talked 
of  the  fun  they  were  going  to  have  during 
the  holidays  "  I  can't  bear  to  think  of 
your  being  *wmy  from  us  at  Christmas," 
wrote  the  Deacon's  mother.  **  Perhaps," 
said  Young  to  himself,  "  I  sha'n't  be  away, 
after  all" 

Then  he  wondered  what  the  fellows  would 
think  and  what  the  people  "out  home"  would 
sty. 

He  knew  just  how  his  father  would  laugh 
at  him,  remarking,  "  I  told  you  so,"  and  how 
his  mother,  who  kept  everyone  informed  off 
bow  Will  was  getting  on  at  college,  would 
ay;  for  k  would  be  as  great  a  disappoint 
ment  to  her  as  to  him.  It  would  surprise 
134 


A  Qfnsnon  or  HOOKY 

her,  too,  for  he  had  not  let  her  know  how 
much  he  had  spent,  telling  himself  that  it 
would  only  worry  her  unnecessarily,  that 
when  the  time  came  he  would  pitch  in  and 
:thing, 

**  Deacon,*  said  Lucky  Lee  on  the  way  tc 
Luncheon,  "  you're  to  come  home  with  me  for 
the  hoKdbyi — at  least  mother  says  so  in  this 
letter.  Course,  1  don't  want  you,  but  I'D 
obey  my  mother." 

sober  Deacon  laughed  at  the  pleas- 
and   thanked   Lucky,  but   shook  his 
:  the  little  fellow's  repeated  importn- 
Yoong  felt  that  he  couldn't   afford 
even  to  buy  a  ticket  to  New  York  and  back. 

His  excuses  were  so  lame,  however,  that 
the  bright-eyed  little  Lucky  suddenly 
an  inkling  of  what  was  the  trouble.  **Sayr 
Deacon,"  he  began  when  they  were  alone, 
•*  if  you  should  ever  get  hard  up,  I  hope  you 
have  decency  enough  to  give  your  friends  a 
chance  to " 

Young  blushed  and  shook  his  head 

" 1  don't  mean  particularly  about  this 
cation,"  Lucky  went  on,     "  You're 

m 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

they  had  to  do  to  get  money  was  to  open 
envelopes  and  then  sign  their  names.  "  You 
fellows,'*  Young  used  to  think  as  he  watched 
them — "  You  fellows  don't  know  how  lucky 
you  are."  But  of  course  he  said  nothing 
to  them  of  what  worried  him.  He  was 
not  that  kind.  They  had  great  respect  for 
his  abilities  and  thought  he  could  do  any 
thing.  They  did  not  guess  what  was  going 
on  in  his  mind  these  days,  while  they  talked 
of  the  fun  they  were  going  to  have  during 
the  holidays.  "  I  can't  bear  to  think  of 
your  being  away  from  us  at  Christmas," 
wrote  the  Deacon's  mother.  "  Perhaps," 
said  Young  to  himself,  "  I  sha'n't  be  away, 
after  all." 

Then  he  wondered  what  the  fellows  would 
think  and  what  the  people  "out  home"  would 
say. 

He  knew  just  how  his  father  would  laugh 
at  him,  remarking,  "  I  told  you  so,"  and  how 
his  mother,  who  kept  everyone  informed  of 
how  Will  was  getting  on  at  college,  would 
cry ;  for  it  would  be  as  great  a  disappoint 
ment  to  her  as  to  him.  It  would  surprise 

134 


A  QUESTION   OF   MONEY 

her,  too,  for  he  had  not  let  her  know  how 
much  he  had  spent,  telling  himself  that  it 
would  only  worry  her  unnecessarily,  that 
when  the  time  came  he  would  pitch  in  and 
do  something. 

"  Deacon,"  said  Lucky  Lee  on  the  way  to 
luncheon,  "  you're  to  come  home  with  me  for 
the  holidays — at  least  mother  says  so  in  this 
letter.  Course,  1  don't  want  you,  but  I'll 
obey  my  mother." 

The  sober  Deacon  laughed  at  the  pleas 
antry,  and  thanked  Lucky,  but  shook  his 
head  at  the  little  fellow's  repeated  importu 
nities.  Young  felt  that  he  couldn't  afford 
even  to  buy  a  ticket  to  New  York  and  back. 

His  excuses  were  so  lame,  however,  that 
the  bright-eyed  little  Lucky  suddenly  got 
an  inkling  of  what  was  the  trouble.  "  Say, 
Deacon,"  he  began  when  they  were  alone, 
41  if  you  should  ever  get  hard  up,  I  hope  you 
have  decency  enough  to  give  your  friends  a 
chance  to " 

Young  blushed  and  shook  his  head. 

44 1  don't  mean  particularly  about  this  va 
cation,"  Lucky  went  on.  "  You're  coming 

135 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

home  with  me  all  right,  if  I  have  to  carry  you 
on  my  back  all  the  way.  I  mean  in  general. 
For  instance,  if  you — er — that  is,  well,  blame 
it,  we're  good  enough  friends.  If  you  are 
1  temporarily  embarrassed/  as  they  say,  when 
you  come  back  after  Christmas,  you'll  do 
what  I  would  do  if  I  were  hard  up,  won't 
you?  If  you  wouldn't  you're  no  friend  of 
mine." 

"What  would  you  do,  Lucky?" 

"  I'd  let  you  lend  me  some  dough — natur 
ally." 

Young  hesitated.  "  Lucky,"  he  said,  "  I 
am  hard  up  —  don't  tell  anybody,  but  I'm 
mighty  hard  up.  I'd  rather  leave  college, 
though,  than  borrow  money  to  stay  here 
with." 

But  Young  spent  Christmas  holidays  with 
Lucky  Lee  in  New  York,  and  it  turned  out 
to  be  a  very  good  thing  that  he  did — not 
only  on  account  of  the  temporary  rest  from 
worry. 


CHAPTER  X 

HOW    HE    STAYED    IN    COLLEGE 

"BUSINESS  is  the  systematic  supplying  of 
wants.  When  all  visible  wants  are  supplied, 
you  must  simply  create  new  wants  to  satisfy. 
Patient  willingness  to  do  whatever  turns  up 
will  only  bring  success  when  things  turn  up. 
Under  the  conditions  of  modern  competi 
tion  things  seldom  turn  up  of  themselves." 

Mr.  Lee,  Lucky's  father,  had  said  this  one 
evening  after  dinner  during  the  happy  holi 
days  ;  and  Will  remembered  every  word  of 
it,  not  only  because  he  had  great  respect  for 
successful  Mr.  Lee's  opinions,  but  because 
what  he  said  seemed  to  apply  to  his  own 
quandary  Mr.  Lee  seemed  to  have  taken  a 
fancy  to  Young,  and  talked  to  him  frequent 
ly.  Mrs.  Lee  liked  him,  too.  She  seemed 
to  consider  his  preferring  to  eat  his  peas 
with  a  spoon  a  very  small  matter  (though 
137 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A   FRESHMAN 

Will  himself  blushed  scarlet  when  he  discov 
ered  his  mistake).  She  said  she  was  glad 
her  son  had  chosen  for  one  of  his  intimate 
friends  a  young  man  with  so  much  maturity 
and  character — this  she  said  to  Young  him 
self — "  And  I  know  you  will  look  after  him," 
she  said  ;  "he's  such  an  impressionable  boy, 
but  he  admires  you  so  much  that  you  can  in 
fluence  him  any  way  you  desire." 

The  Deacon  blushed  and  said  he  would 
try,  but  what  Lucky's  father  said  made  more 
impression  upon  him  at  the  time. 

"When  all  the  wants  are  satisfied  you 
must  simply  create  new  wants."  It  seemed  to 
Young  that  this  ought  to  apply  to  the  little 
world  of  college  quite  as  well  as  to  the  big 
world  of  commerce  of  which  Mr.  Lee  spoke. 
Every  day  as  he  walked  to  and  from  recita 
tions  through  the  campus,  now  muddy  and 
monotonous  after  a  wet  snow,  Young  tried 
and  tried  and  tried  to  think  of  some  new 
want  to  satisfy. 

Lucky  said  he  was  trying,  too ;  but  gen 
erally  he  forgot  as  soon  as  anyone  yelled, 
•'Hold  up,  there,  Lucky!"  and  joined  him 
138 


HOW    HE   STAYED   IN    COLLEGE 

on  the  walk.  It  did  not  mean  so  much  to 
him. 

The  Deacon  was  walking  past  Old  Jimmy, 
the  peanut-  and  fruit-vender,  when  the  idea 
came  to  him.  He  suddenly  stopped  short, 
slapped  his  thigh,  and  said :  "  I've  got  it ! 
I've  got  it!"  That  night  he  unfolded  his 
scheme  to  Lucky,  whose  eyes  grew  big. 

44  Deacon,  you're  a  dandy  !  But,  say,  are 
you  sure  it'll  work?" 

44  Sure  ?  No,  I'm  not  sure  it'll  make 
much.  But  I'm  sure  I'll  have  to  leave  col 
lege,  anyway,  if  I  don't  do  something, 
and " 

44  But  why  go  to  all  the  expense  of  the 
posters?" 

44  To  advertise  it,  get  'em  talking,  create 
the  want !  That's  the  way  to  do  business. 
And  just  now  everything  is  dull  in  the  college 
world — no  athletics  to  distract  attention." 

44  Well,  I'll  help  you  stick  'em  up.  It'll 
remind  us  of  pasting  procs,  eh?" 

One  morning,  a  few  days  later,  the  whole 
University,  on  its  way  to  and  from  recitations 
139 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

and  lectures,  saw  a  poster  on  the  Bulletin  Elm. 
It  had  two  black  letters  on  it,  C.  C.  There 
was  nothing  else  there.  They  glanced  at  it, 
wondered  what  it  meant,  and  passed  on. 

The  next  day  a  new  one  was  there  in  let 
ters  twice  as  big,  C.  C.  Again  the  college 
wondered  what  it  meant ;  but  this  time  some 
of  them  did  not  pass  on  until  they  had  asked 
someone  else,  "  What's  that  thing  f  or  ? " 
"What's  the  meaning  of  that?"  No  dUe 
could  answer. 

A  snow-storm  washed  it  off  during  the 
afternoon. 

A  fresh  one  was  put  up  the  next  morning. 

"  Here's  that  queer  poster  again,"  said  the 
passers-by.  "  What's  it  for,  anyway  ?  " 

"  Nobody  seems  to  know." 

The  next  morning  the  same  letters  on 
larger-sized  paper  were  found  not  only  on 
the  bulletin-board,  but  tacked  up  on  all  the 
available  trees  of  the  campus,  and  in  the 
town  on  all  the  billboards,  old  barrels,  tum 
ble-down  sheds,  and  stalled  wagons.  On  the 
way  to  recitation,  or  lectures,  every  one  saw 
C.  C.  half  a  dozen  times.  They  saw  it  on 

140 


HOW   HE    STAYED    IN   COLLEGE 

the  tree-boxes  along  the  street.  When  they 
took  walks  they  saw  it  on  old  barns  down 
toward  Kingston. 

Now  at  Princeton,  what  there  is  of  a  town 
is  little  more  than  a  setting  for  the  Univer 
sity.  There  are  no  outside  distractions,  such 
as  theatres  and  the  like,  as  at  most  large 
institutions  of  learning.  The  campus  life  is 
the  only  life,  and  the  college  students  are 
^dependent  upon  the  college  world  for  all 
their  amusements  and  between-hour  inter 
ests.  Everyone  keeps  in  touch  with  every 
thing  that  is  going  on. 

So  when  this  poster  with  its  brief  legend 
continued  to  appear  and  reappear  every  day, 
and  no  one  deciphered  its  meaning,  the  col 
lege  began  to  get  interested — all  the  more 
so  because  it  was  midwinter,  and  therefore 
neither  football  nor  baseball  was  absorbing 
the  undergraduate  interest. 

"  What's  going  to  happen  ? "  everyone 
asked.  "What's  the  meaning  of  this  mys 
tery  ?  "  And  no  one  could  answer. 

The  thing  had  now  kept  up  for  over  a 
week.  The  Daily  Princetonian  commented 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

upon  it.  Even  the  faculty  began  to  inquire, 
in  a  dignified  way,  as  to  "the  meaning  of 
those  cabalistic  symbols."  The  undergradu 
ates  had  begun  to  make  up  words  to  fit,  and 
rumors  floated  about  the  campus.  "  C.  C. — 
college  clowns,"  said  someone  ;  "  it's  to  be  a 
horse  minstrel  troupe." 

"  No,  that's  not  it,"  said  another,  "  it's 
Curious  Customs — a  new  book  by  a  member 
of  the  faculty." 

"  What  nonsense  ! "  sneered  a  wise  Senior, 
"  it's  only  a  hoax  perpetrated  by  some  under 
classmen  who  think  themselves  funny;  it 
isn't  worth  talking  about,"  and  he  went  on 
down  to  the  club  and  talked  half  through 
dinner  about  it  himself. 

Those  who  considered  themselves  humor 
ous  began  to  make  jokes  about  it.  "  Look, 
here,"  one  would  say,  and  the  other  would 
reply,  "  I  C.  C." 

And  now  suddenly  the  posters  disap 
peared.  None  could  be  found  in  any  part 
of  the  town ;  Bronson,  a  Junior,  paid  half 
a  dollar  for  one  to  put  in  his  scrap- 
book.  "  What's  become  of  it !  "  they  asked. 

142 


HOW   HE   STAYED   IN   COLLEGE 

"  C.  C.  —  can't   come,"  answered  a  funny 
man. 

They  were  still  talking  about  its  disap 
pearance  when,  a  few  days  later,  the  posters 
again  appeared,  more  of  them  than  ever, 
and  this  time  it  was  a  poster  to  make  the 
undergraduate  world  excited.  It  was  in  the 
college  colors,  for  one  thing,  the  paper  being 
orange  and  the  letters  black.  That  alone 
was  enough  to  lend  fresh  interest,  but  that 
was  not  the  most  important  change.  Under 
the  letters  C.  C.  were  the  words  : 

"  TO-MORROW,    THE    I2TH,    AT    NOON,    BY   THE 
CANNON." 

The  Cannon  is  the  centre  of  the  front 
quadrangle  and  the  hub  of  the  campus  life. 
At  half-past  twelve  o'clock  all  the  morning 
lectures  and  recitations  of  both  upper  and 
lower  classes  are  over,  and  no  one  has  any 
thing  immediate  to  attend  to.  The  next  day, 
by  the  time  the  bell  in  the  Old  North  had 
finished  announcing  the  noon  hour,  nearly 
the  whole  university  found  it  convenient  to 
be  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Cannon. 
143 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A   FRESHMAN 

Old  Jimmy  Johnson,  the  ancient  negro 
fruit-  and  peanut-vender,  stood  beside  the 
Cannon,  against  which  leaned  his  wheel 
barrow  heaped  high  With  a  mass  of  small 
orange-and-black  objects,  and  over  them 
waved  an  orange  banner  on  which  were  two 
big  black  letters,  C.  C.  That  was  all  there 
was  to  look  at ;  and  old  Jimmy  was  as  silent 
and  bored-looking  as  ever. 

The  crowd  drew  nearer.  The  orange- 
and-black  things  were  small  pasteboard 
boxes,  shaped  like  miniature  bricks.  On 
one  side  of  them  was  printed  these  words, 
"  Made  from  the  purest  materials,  in  the 
most  careful  manner,  by  a  secret  receipt  in 
the  possession  of  Fraulein  Hummel  of  New 
York."  On  the  other  side  appeared  the 
words,  "  Delicious  College  Caramels,  five 
cents  a  box,"  and  on  either  end,  "C.  C." 
Old  Jimmy  kept  on  looking  solemn  and 
silent 

At  first  the  crowd  seemed  inclined  to 
laugh — not  at  Jimmy  or  his  load  so  much  as 
at  themselves,  for  being  so  worked  up  over  a 
small  affair.  "Is  that  all  it  is?"  everyone 

144 


MOW    HE    STAYED    IN    COLLEGE 

thought,  and  some  noisy  Sophomores  began 
to  shout,  in  loud  voices,  "  Sold  !  "  "  Leg- 
pull !  Leg-pull!"  "Let's  go,"  said  some 
one  else  ;  "all  over  !" 

But  curiosity  had  been  whetted  too  strong 
ly  during  the  past  fortnight  not  to  have  it 
satisfied  as  fully  as  possible.  Besides,  the 
boxes  looked  very  neat,  and  the  simple  in 
scription  on  them  sounded  very  attractive. 
Also  it  was  several  hours  since  breakfast ; 
a  number  of  fellows  were  observed  to  swal 
low  something  when  reading  the  word  "  de 
licious." 

First,  three  jocular  Juniors,  who  prided 
themselves  on  always  doing  as  they  pleased, 
strode  over  to  Jimmy's  wheelbarrow,  arm  in 
arm,  announcing  to  everybody  as  they  did  so, 
"  We  are  going  to  have  some  C.  C.  We  must 
have  C.  C.,"  and  bought  a  box,  which  they 
proceeded  to  open,  and  the  contents  of  which 
they  ostentatiously  and  with  much  smacking 
of  lips  devoured  before  the  assembled  crowd. 

"Oh,  we  like  C.  C.!"  shouted  the  three 
Juniors.  "Give  us  some  more,  Jimmy," 
and  then  they  marched  through  the  crowd 

145 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

munching  and  saying,  "  We  are  the  first  to 
see  C.  C.  We  are  the  first  to  see  C.  C. 
Three  cheers  for  C.  C!" 

By  this  time  several  other  Juniors,  grin 
ning  to  show  they,  too,  were  joking,  went 
over  to  the  wheelbarrow  and  put  down  five 
cents  each. 

Then  other  Juniors,  then  some  of  the 
Sophomores — who  always  like  to  do  what 
Juniors  do — and  after  that  a  few  Freshmen, 
made  bold  to  approach  the  wheelbarrow, 
and  finally  even  a  Senior  or  two,  "just  to 
see  what  they  were  like,  anyway,"  sampled 
C.  C,  and  they  immediately  stopped  looking 
superior  and  remarked,  "  By  Jove,  they  are 
good !  Try  them." 

That  was  what  everybody  seemed  to  think, 
for  within  half  an  hour  old  black  Jimmy, 
who  almost  turned  white  making  change, 
found  his  wheelbarrow  empty,  and  went 
toddling  off  to  have  it  replenished  ;  while  the 
undergraduate  body  of  the  University  of 
Princeton  strolled  off  to  its  midday  meal, 
chewing. 

Two  of  the  crowd  who  lagged  behind 
146 


HOW    HE   STAYED   IN   COLLEGE 

seemed  pleased  about  something,  and  one 
was  quietly  punching  the  other  in  the  ribs, 
and  saying :  4<  Well,  well !  Deacon,  well, 
well !  Your  little  scheme  is  certainly  work 
ing,  in  spite  of  my  prediction.  I  hope  it  will 
keep  on  working." 

"  Stop  punching  me,.  Lucky  ! "  the  Deacon 
said,  but  he  laughed  excitedly  in  spite  of 
himself.  "  It'll  keep  on  working  all  right, 
you  see  if  it  doesn't.  There  wasn't  any  good 
candy  here,  and  all  this  needed  was  an  intro 
duction." 

"  Aren't  you  glad  now  you  went  home 
Christmas  with  me  ?  "  said  Lucky,  exultingly  ; 
"  otherwise  you  wouldn't  have  heard  us  talk 
ing  about  that  old  woman  and  her  bully  car 
amels." 

For  a  week  or  so  C.  C.'s  were  sold  as  fast 
as  they  could  be  supplied.  They  had  become 
"  the  thing."  Students  munched  them  in  their 
rooms,  during  their  walks,  on  the  way  to 
lecture-rooms,  and  even  inside.  They  sent 
them  home  to  their  sisters  and  to  their  room 
mates'  sisters.  They  told  the  story  in  their 
letters,  and  their  friends  sent  stamps  and 

147 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

requests  for  other  packages  of  "  those  deli 
cious  things." 

Of  course  the  first  boom  died  down,  as 
Young  knew  it  would ;  but  there  remained 
a  good,  steady,  normal  demand  for  them, 
and  before  long  he  had  cleared,  in  all,  $150. 

"Now,"  thought  Will  Young,  "I  am 
going  to  lean  back  and  enjoy  life  like  Todd 
and  the  rest  of  them.  Seems  to  me  I  have 
a  right  to." 

Of  course  it  had  leaked  out  by  this  time, 
as  such  things  always  do,  who  was  at  the 
bottom  of  the  C.  C.  business,  and  the  col 
lege  said  :  "  What !  that  big,  sober-looking 
green  Freshman  that  did  up  Ballard  ?  He's 
quite  a  boy,  isn't  he  ?  " 

Now,  when  this  got  around  to  the  Invin- 
cibles,  and  so  to  Will  Young,  he  only 
scowled  and  thought :  "  I  don't  see  why  they 
still  call  me  green.  I  should  think  by  this 
time  " — then  he  looked  down  the  table.  "  Are 
you  coming  up  to  get  in  the  game  this  even 
ing?"  he  heard  Billy  Drew  murmur  to  Mi 
nerva  Powelton. 

They  did  not  ask  the  Deacon,  and  for 
148 


HOW   HE   STAYED   IN   COLLEGE 

some  reason  the  Deacon  resented  it.  Why  ? 
A  few  months  ago  he  would  have  resented  it 
if  they  had  asked  him. 

One  wet,  muddy  day  toward  the  end  of 
the  winter  two  dignified  Juniors,  Jimmy  Lin- 
ton,  the  philosopher,  and  Billy  Nolan,  the 
football  man,  were  walking  across  the  quad 
rangle  to  a  four  o'clock  lecture. 

"  Billy,"  said  Linton,  "  a  Freshman  is  a  fun 
ny  thing.  You  never  can  tell  how  they  are  go 
ing  to  turn  out.  See  that  fellow  ahead  there  ?  " 

"  Why,  that's  Young  the  Freshman  guard. 
Say,  Jim,  that  boy's  going  to  make  the  'Var 
sity  before  he  gets  out  of  college." 

Linton  said,  "  He  may  make  the  team,  but 
he's  going  to  make  a  fool  of  himself  first." 

"  How  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"Oh,  it's  the  same  old  story,"  Linton 
smiled.  "  He's  in  with  a  sporty  crowd  and 
is  beginning  to  try  to  act  the  way  they  do. 
He's  a  Freshman." 

Nolan  shook  his  head.  "  You're  stuck  on 
your  ability  to  size  people  up,  but  I  don't  be 
lieve  Young's  that  sort  of  a  fool." 

149 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

"  No,  and  he  doesn't,  either.  That's  just 
the  trouble.  It's  coming  on  him  uncon 
sciously.  You  see  he's  heard  his  table-mates 
talk  so  much  about  things  he  used  to  abhor 
that  he's  got  accustomed  to  them,  and  he's 
ceased  to  abhor  them.  But  he  doesn't  stop 
there;  they  seldom  do,  you  know.  You 
can  tell  by  his  walk  that  his  way  of  looking 
at  things  has  changed." 

"  But,  Jim,  Young's  not  such  a  kid." 

"  He  wouldn't  be,  but,  you  see,  he's  had 
too  much  success  in  too  many  ways — it  has 
dazzled  and  rattled  the  young  man  from  the 
country.  Success  has  turned  his  head.  He's 
flattered  at  being  taken  up  by  these  promi 
nent  young  sporty  Freshmen,  and  he  doesn't 
know  how  to  let  well  enough  alone," 

"  You  mean " 

"  I  mean  that  he  wants  to  get  clear  'in  it.' 
He  doesn't  want  to  be  considered  a  big,  green 
giant.  He  wants  to  make  himself  like  the 
rest  of  the — Invincibles,  I  think  they  call 
themselves.  That  is  the  way  to  be  a  college 
man,  he  thinks." 

44  Well,"  said  Nolan,  "  can  you  account  for 
150 


HOW   HE   STAYED   IN   COLLEGE 

the  way  people  in  general,  not  only  here  in 
college,  but  in  the  big,  outside  world — peo 
ple  that  ought  to  know  better,  people  you'd 
never  expect  it  of — can  you  account  for  their 
making  fools  of  'emselves  to  stand  in  with 
the  crowd  ?  Asses  !  " 

Then  these  two  moralizers  changed  the 
subject  to  baseball.  Both  thought  of  taking 
an  early  opportunity  of  giving  the  big  Fresh 
man  a  friendly  tip,  for  they  knew  him  well 
enough  by  this  time.  And  both  went  off 
and  forgot ;  and  if  it  recurred  to  them,  they 
put  it  off  till  they  "  felt  more  like  it." 

What  had  Deacon  Young  actually  done  ? 
Oh,  nothing  at  all,  or  next  to  nothing. 
Billy  Drew  one  morning  at  breakfast  was 
telling  about  his  experience  of  the  night  be 
fore,  and  then  stopped  suddenly  when  Young 
entered  the  room. 

"Go  on,  I  want  to  hear  the  rest  of  it," 
said  the  Deacon,  smiling  broadly.  "  I  heard 
the  first  part  while  I  was  taking  off  my  coat 
in  the  hall.  Go  on."  So  Drew  went  on  in 
the  grinning,  boastful  way  of  a  certain  sort 
of  Freshman,  with  his  account  of  how  he  fell 

151 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

upstairs,  and  how  he  tried  to  catch  the  bed 
as  it  whirled  around. 

Some  of  them  began  to  chuckle.  Lucky 
Lee  looked  at  Young ;  so  did  one  or  two  of 
the  others.  Young  knew  they  were  looking 
at  him.  Here  was  his  chance  to  show  them 
he  was  not  so  stiff  and  sober  and  green  as 
they  imagined.  He  leaned  back  in  his  chair 
and  laughed  heartily.  Then  Lucky  Lee  and 
the  rest  of  the  table  laughed  heartily. 

And  after  that  no  one  took  pains  to  keep 
things  away  from  the  Deacon  again.  That 
seems  a  very  little  thing,  but,  as  Linton  said, 
he  was  not  very  likely  to  stop  there. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    TROUBLE    WITH    BEING    A    HERO 

THE  winter,  with  its  jolly  long  evenings 
about  cosey  fire-places,  was  over,  and  the 
Freshman-Sophomore  snowball  fight  was  al 
most  forgotten.  The  University  baseball 
candidates  had  left  the  "  Cage  "  and  were 
practising  outdoors  on  the  diamond.  The 
glorious  spring  term  had  come,  and  the  Sen 
iors  had  begun  twilight  singing  on  the  steps 
of  Old  North.  The  elms  were  putting  on 
their  new  leaves ;  the  undergraduates  their 
new  flannel  trousers. 

The  Invincibles  were  on  their  way  from 
the  club,  to  stretch  out  under  the  old  elms 
and  hear  the  Seniors  sing  the  old  songs. 

Powelton  was  saying  :  "  I  don't   see  why 
you  are  so  anxious  to  put  him  up  for  any 
office.     To  tell  the  truth,  the  old  chump  has 
been  disgusting  me  lately." 
153 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

"I'm  not  anxious,"  returned  Todd,  "but 
you  see,  he'll  take  with  the  poling  ele 
ment." 

"  But  will  he,  now  f  He  isn't  such  a  gos 
pel  shark  as  we  all  thought  at  first." 

"  Of  course,  he's  no  saint,  but  they  don't 
know  anything  about  the  Deacon,  except  his 
high  stand  and  his  serious-looking  face,  and 
the  reputation  he  made  with  that  C.  C.  busi 
ness.  Now,  as  we're  running  you  and  Ashley 
for  president  and  vice-president,  I  think  it 
would  be  foxy  to  put  up  somebody  like  the 
old  Deacon  for  the  secretary-treasurership." 
It  was  drawing  near  the  time  for  the  election 
of  class  officers  for  the  next  year,  and  Todd 
was  somewhat  of  a  politician. 

"  Maybe  you're  right,  but  I  don't  care  to 
serve  with  him.  He's  so  uncouth." 

Powelton  need  not  have  worried  about 
that ;  he  did  not  have  to  serve  with  Young. 
Powelton  was  not  elected  ;  Young  was  the 
only  nominee  of  the  Invincibles  that  was. 

The  club  had  gained  a  reputation,  not  al 
together  deserved,  for  snobbishness.  They 
were  also  considered,  rightly  perhaps,  the 
154 


THE   TROUBLE   WITH    BEING  A   HERO 

sportiest  crowd  in  the  class ;  and  either  of 
these  is  dangerous,  and  the  two  together  are 
fatal  to  a  crowd's  chances  when  it  comes  to 
class  elections.  Besides,  the  Invincibles  had 
been  running  class  affairs  long  enough,  and 
the  class  thought  it  would  be  just  as  well  to 
distribute  authority  and  prominence. 

The  Invincibles  had  made  the  error  of 
taking  it  for  granted  that  they  would  con 
tinue  to  run  the  class,  and  bitter  was  their 
chagrin  when  they  found  how  very  mistaken 
they  were.  They  did  not  know  how  to  take 
it ;  for  several  days  nobody  said  very  much 
at  the  table  ;  they  only  looked  glum  and 
sour — except  Deacon  Young. 

"  Oh,  cork  up  that  tuneless  whistle," 
growled  Minerva  Powelton  ;  "you  make 
too  much  noise."  They  were  familiar  with 
him  now. 

Young  laughed  noisily,  but  kept  on  whis 
tling  and  looked  about  the  table,  as  he  had 
seen  the  others  do.  Then  lighting  a  cigar, 
he  arose,  said,  "  So  long,  fellows — see  you 
later,"  and  walked  up  the  street  with  his 
hands  deep  in  his  pockets,  his  body  inclined 
155 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

forward  in  a  kind  of  slouch,  like  a  certain 
upper-classman  he  admired. 

"  Look  at  him,"  said  Powelton  from  the 
window.  "  My,  but  he  makes  me  tired  when 
he  tries  to  do  the  dead-game  act." 

He  made  them  all  more  or  less  tired, 
though  most  of  them  liked  him  somewhat 
still,  but  in  a  very  different  way  now.  He 
was  not  a  hero  any  more. 

He  tried  to  make  himself  as  much  like 
them  as  he  could,  but  he  had  only  succeed 
ed  in  seeming  unlike  himself.  They  had 
not  expected  or  wanted  him  to  be  like  them. 

They  laughed  at  him,  behind  his  back  and 
to  his  face. 

He  tried  harder. 

They  laughed  more.  He  did  not  realize 
why. 

There  were  a  great  many  things  that  he 
did  not  realize.  When  he  was  nominated 
for  the  secretary-treasurership,  as  Powelton 
now  felt  like  telling  him,  it  was  not  because 
they  wanted  him,  but  because  the  club  want 
ed  the  office.  And  neither  did  he  realize 
that  he  was  elected  chiefly  because  of  his 

156 


THE   TROUBLE    WITH    BEING   A    HERO 

good  reputation,  now  undeserved,  with  the 
despised  quiet  fellows  of  the  class. 

All  he  realized  was  that  he,  William 
Young,  who  had  started  out  a  poor,  ridiculed 
nonentity  from  the  country,  had  conquered 
the  famous  bully  of  the  Sophomore  class, 
had  won  a  place  as  right  guard  of  the  Fresh 
man  team,  had  been  sought  out  by  the  In- 
vincibles,  had  earned  enough  money  to  take 
him  through  the  year,  and,  finally,  had  been 
elected  the  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the 
great  class  of  Ninety-blank  by  popular  vote. 
It  was  the  very  office  formerly  held  by  the 
admired  Lucky  Lee.  It  was  all  that  was 
needed  to  turn  his  head. 

So  he  strutted  about  and  looked  patroniz 
ingly  down  on  his  old  friends  Barrows  and 
Wilson,  and  blew  smoke  in  their  faces,  tell 
ing  himself  how  narrow-minded  they  were. 

You  see,  he  came  to  the  Invinciblesahero 
dizzy  with  success.  It  is  hard  on  anyone  to 
be  a  hero,  and  success  had  proved  too  much 
for  him.  Instead  of  doing  the  Invincibles 
good,  as  he  had  intended,  they  had  done  him 
harm,  as  they  surely  never  intended.  It  was 

157 


THE  ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

such  a  pity.  He  could  have  made  a  very 
different  thing  of  the  whole  club  if  he  had 
only  used  his  influence  in  the  right  way. 

But  this  was  another  thing  he  did  not  real 
ize  ;  at  least  not  until  a  little  later.  And 
then  he  did  not  have  the  influence. 


2  A.M. 

However,  after  saying  good  night  ...  he  would  sneak 
off  to  his  room,  tie  a  wet  towel  around  his  head,  and 
pole.  .  .  .—  Page  1 59. 


CHAPTER  XII 

SERVING   TWO    MASTERS 

ALTHOUGH  Deacon  Young  was  trying  so 
hard  to  do  the  "  dead-game  act,"  the  Fresh 
man  First  Honor  prize  was  still  a  matter  of 
daily  effort  with  him.  He  was  really  work 
ing  exceedingly  hard  for  it.  He  pretended 
that  he  was  not  working  at  all. 

He  was  nearly  always  with  the  "crowd" 
in  the  evenings  and  was  frequently  seen  wan 
dering  around  as  aimlessly  as  the  rest  of  them 
during  the  day.  That  was  the  way  he  kept 
from  being  called  a  poler. 

However,  after  saying  good-night  yawn- 
ingly  to  the  other  fellows,  he  would  sneak 
off  to  his  room,  tie  a  wet  towel  around  his 
head,  and  pole  until  2  A.M.  He  utilized  half- 
holidays  when  the  others  were  reading  or 
were  off  running  hare  and  hounds,  or  taking 
long  rambles  across  country,  or  canoeing  up 
the  Millstone,  or  shooting  with  the  gun  club, 

159 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

or  paying  visits  to  the  neighboring  cities; 
also  he  had  dropped  out  of  literary  Hall 
work  entirely,  took  little  exercise,  and  de 
voted  to  his  curriculum  studies  even  the  spare 
time  he  had  formerly  put  in  at  miscellaneous 
reading.  That  was  the  way  he  kept  up  his 
high  stand  in  class. 

So,  as  the  fellows  would  see  him  with  the 
idlers  until  bedtime  at  night,  and  then  heard 
of  his  making  recitations  as  good  as  "  Poler" 
Barrows  in  the  morning,  it  was  no  wonder 
that  some  began  to  think  him  a  "phenome 
non"  like  Todd.  That  was  what  Young 
wanted  them  to  think.  He  thought  a  great 
deal  about  what  others  thought  about  him — 
a  great  deal  too  much,  some  of  his  more  in 
timate  associates  decided  one  evening,  while 
waiting  for  him  in  Minerva  Powelton's  room. 

"  No,  don't  begin  yet,"  Powelton  was  say 
ing.  "  I  promised  the  Deacon  we'd  wait  for 
him." 

"  I  don't  see  why  he  is  always  so  anxious 
to  get  in  the  game,"  said  Billy  Drew,  inhal 
ing  cigarette-smoke.  "  I  don't  believe  he 

really  enjoys  it  very  much." 
1 60 


SERVING  TWO    MASTERS 

"The  trouble  with  the  Deacon,"  said  Todd, 
"  is  that  he  is  too  much  afraid  of  your  opinion. 
If  he  hadn't  got  so  bored  when  we  called 
him  dignified  he  wouldn't  have  made  the 
mistake  in  the  first  place  of  trying  to  be  a 
dead-game,  you  know.  It  isn't  his  style  to  be 
that,  so  he  was  guyed  and  laughed  at.  But 
instead  of  bracing  up  and  being  like  himself, 
he  sticks  it  on  all  the  harder.  He  thinks  to 
win  favor  that  way.  That's  the  plain  Eng 
lish  of  it." 

"Aw,  you  make  me  tired!"  said  Lee, 
good-naturedly.  "  Somehow,  lately,  you're 
always  preaching.  The  Deacon  wants  a  little 
recreation,  like  the  rest  of  us.  That's  all. 
He  has  plenty  of  good  stuff  in  him." 

"Plenty,"  said  Todd.  "Trouble  is,  he 
doesn't  let  it  out." 

The  door  opened. 

"  Yea  !  Deacon,"  said  the  others. 

"  Been  doing  the  poler  act  on  the  sly 
again,  have  you  ?  "  asked  Powelton,  throwing 
a  sofa  cushion  at  him. 

"  Naw.  Hello  there,  Lucky !  You  here  ? 
Going  to  get  in  the  little  game  this  evening, 

161 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A   FRESHMAN 

hey  ?  "  said  Young,  smiling.  "  Toddie,  you 
are,  aren't  you  ?  " 

"  No,  thanks,"  said  Todd,  arising  and 
stretching  himself. 

"  Traid,  are  you  ?  "  asked  Young. 

Todd  laughed  contemptuously.  "  I'm  not 
afraid  to  have  you  think  I'm  afraid,  if  it 
gives  you  any  pleasure ;  it  doesn't  hurt  me. 
Lucky,  are  you  coming  with  me  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Lee,  looking  at  the  Deacon, 
"I  reckon  I'll  stay  awhile." 

"  Come  on,  Lucky,"  Todd  said. 

Lee  shook  his  head. 

Todd  turned,  watched  the  others  a  mo 
ment,  while  they  got  out  the  cards  and  chips, 
and  drew  up  their  chairs  to  the  table  ;  then, 
smiling  quizzically  at  Young,  he  took  his  hat 
and  left  the  room. 

Now  Young  may  not  have  been  poling 
just  before  he  arrived,  but  together  with  late 
hours  and  lack  of  exercise,  he  looked  as  pale 
and  haggard  as  the  hardest  poler  in  college. 
And  by  the  strong  light  opposite  him,  as  he 
sat  playing  at  the  table,  a  fellow  like  Linton 
might  have  fancied  he  saw  other  lines  in  his 

162 


SERVING  TWO   MASTERS 

face — unpleasant  lines  that  meant  something 
besides  hard  study  and  lack  of  exercise. 

Somehow,  at  this  game,  he  did  not  look 
like  the  same  Deacon  Young  who  trotted 
home  from  football  practice  last  fall,  glow 
ing  and  glad  to  be  alive. 

The  attitude  of  most  of  the  club  toward 
the  class  at  large  was  very  much  what  Young's 
was  toward  Barrows  and  Wilson  and  those 
fellows.  The  Invincibles  had  been  frowned 
upon  by  the  class  for  being  "sporty" ;  con 
sequently  they  hated  the  class.  Instead  of 
changing  their  conduct,  they  became  "  sport 
ier  "  than  ever,  and  they  were  fast  gaining  a 
reputation  throughout  the  college  world,  and 
they  considered  themselves  very  dangerous. 

The  poker  game  went  on.  It  was  getting 
late,  but  nobody  noticed  that. 

"Whose  deal  is  it?" 

"  Mine,"  said  Lucky,  picking  up  the  cards 
with  a  nervous  hand  ;  he  began  to  shuffle 
them. 

Powelton  smiled  in  his  superior  way. 
"  Look  at  Lucky's  fingers  twitch,"  he  said. 
The  others  laughed,  and  Young  added,  in- 

163 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

diligently,  "The  little  boy  will  get  over  that 
in  time." 

Lee  was  dealing,  and  he  was  too  much  ex 
cited  to  hear  or  reply  to  this  sally ;  it  was 
i  A.M.  of  the  first  night  he  had  ever  played 
cards  for  money  in  his  life,  and  with  a  be 
ginner's  luck  he  had  been  winning  all  even 
ing. 

"Can  you  open  it,  Tommy?"  asked  Lee, 
the  dealer. 

"  Nope,"  said  Stevens. 

"  I  can't,"  said  Powelton. 

"  Can  you,  Deacon  ?  " 

"  No,  of  course  not" 

"Can  you,  Billy?" 

Drew  shook  his  head. 

"  No,"  said  Jones,  without  waiting  to  be 
asked. 

"  Sweeten  it  up,  then,"  said  Powelton. 

"Wait  a  minute,"  said  Lee.  "I  can. 
Who's  coming  in?"  He  giggled  excitedly. 

Three  of  the  six  simply  laid  down  their 
hands  hopelessly.  "  I  never  saw  such  luck," 
one  of  them  said. 

Young  hesitated  a  moment.  "  I  guess  I'll 
164 


SERVING   TWO   MASTERS 

come  in,"  he  said  finally.  "  Four  cards  please.' 
He  puffed  on  an  extinguished  cigar-butt. 

"  Well,  well !  the  Deacon's  got  nerve,"  said 
Drew. 

"  Oh  !  he's  getting  to  be  an  old  hand," 
said  Minerva  Powelton,  winking. 

"  See  how  coolly  he  picks  up  his  cards," 
remarked  Billy  Drew. 

Young  paid  no  attention  to  these  remarks. 
He  was  cool  outwardly,  but  it  was  the  cool 
ness  of  desperation.  He  had  been  losing  all 
the  evening  as  steadily  as  Lucky  had  been 
gaining.  But  you  see  he  was  not  a  beginner 
now ;  he  had  played  five  or  six  times  and 
felt  himself,  as  they  said,  an  old  hand  at 
it,  and  he  too  had  laughed  at  Lucky's  green 
ness — early  in  the  evening.  But  now  Lucky, 
who  was  never  persuaded  to  play  poker  un 
til  the  Deacon  played,  was  winning  away  all 
his  money. 

Young  did  not  know  how  much  he  had 
lost ;  he  would  not  let  himself  think.  But 
he  knew  it  was  more  than  he  could  afford, 
and  he  made  up  his  mind  that  if  he  lost  this 
time  he  would  not  give  himself  a  chance  to 

165 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

lose  again.  He  picked  up  the  four  cards  he 
had  drawn  in  place  of  the  discarded  ones, 
and  looked  at  them.  His  heart  gave  a 
bound.  He  covered  the  cards  for  a  mo 
ment,  and  then  looked  at  them  again. 

"  Yes,  it's  really  true,"  he  said  to  himself. 
"  Surely  this  hand  can't  be  beaten." 

"Well,  what  do  you  do,  Deacon  ?" 

For  answer  Young  simply  laid  down  a 
large  bet. 

"Hully  Gee!"  whispered  Powelton  to 
Drew.  "  Big  bluff  the  Deacon  is  throwing,  eh  ? " 

Lee  overheard  it.  He  meant  to  show 
the  Deacon  that  he  could  not  be  bluffed  out, 
even  if  he  were  a  beginner.  Besides,  he  had 
a  hand  he  was  willing  to  stake  a  good  deal 
upon.  He  put  down  twice  the  amount  of 
Young's  bet. 

"  Hoho  !  the  bluff  didn't  work/'  laughed 
Drew.  "  Now,  then,  Deacon,  let's  see  what 
you  can  do." 

"  Shut  up  ! "  said  Young.  "  Don't  bother 
us ! "  He  puffed  on  his  cold  cigar  a  mo 
ment,  and  then  put  down  another  large  bet 

"  I'm  with  you  !  "  said  Lucky  Lee,  and  he 

1 66 


SERVING  TWO    MASTERS 

increased  the  stake  again.     His   eyes  were 
glistening. 

For  several  minutes  they  kept  on  increas 
ing  the  amount  in  the  centre  of  the  table, 
one  thoughtfully,  the  other  excitedly.  The 
older  players  now  left  off  making  patronizing 
remarks,  and  became  interested.  Finally 
Young  said,  "  No,  I  won't  make  it  any 
higher.  What  have  you  got  ?  " 

Lee  slapped  down  his  cards.  His  voice 
trembled  a  little  as  he  asked,  confidently, 
"  Can  you  beat  that  ?  " 

"Yep,"  said  Young,  and  he  coolly  laid 
down  his  victorious  hand.  The  others  all 
looked  at  it.  "  It's  about  time  I  was  win 
ning,"  he  said,  calmly  enough  ;  but  his  heart 
was  thumping. 

"Why  didn't  you  keep  on  raising  him?" 
asked  Powelton,  sneeringly. 

"  I  wish  I  had,"  thought  Young,  as  he 
gathered  in  what  meant  a  large  winning  for 
one  swoop.  Lee  was  laughing  loudly  to 
show  he  did  not  care.  He  was  excited,  and 
would  have  gone  on  betting  for  a  long  time, 
Young  thought. 

167 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A   FRESHMAN 

That  was  the  turning-point.  Had  Young 
lost,  he  might  have  stopped  ;  but  to  stop 
now  would  look  mean,  he  reflected. 

"The  luck  has  turned,"  he  whispered  to 
himself.  "  I'll  play  a  few  more  hands." 
And  when  the  game  broke  up  at  dawn,  he 
had  lost  his  winnings,  and  more. 

That  night  he  tossed  in  his  bed,  and  said  : 
"  I  must  stop  ;  that's  all  there  is  about  it ;  I 
must  stop." 

The  next  time  they  met  to  play,  Young 
said,  "  Go  ahead  without  me  ;  I  don't  feel 
like  it  to-night." 

"  The  Deacon  hasn't  any  sporting  blood. 
He's  afraid  of  his  own  pupil,"  Powelton 
said,  and  the  others  laughed.  Lucky  laughed, 
too ;  he  was  the  pupil.  Young  played. 

That  night  Young  won  handily.  He  felt 
especially  pleased  to  win  that  night.  He 
thought,  "  I'll  stop  the  minute  I  have  won 
back  what  I  lost."  But  he  did  not  win  back 
what  he  had  lost,  and  so  played  on  the  next 
night,  and  on  the  next.  And  so  it  went 
until  be  was  brought  to  a  stop  with  a  jerk. 

It  came  near  the  end  of  the  term  and  of  the 

168 


SERVING   TWO    MASTERS 

year,  shortly  before  the  final  examinations. 
The  crowd  had  been  playing  nearly  every 
night,  and  of  late,  somehow,  Young  had 
been  losing  nearly  every  time  he  played  ; 
but  he  said  :  "  I  can't  afford  to  stop  now. 
Surely  this  bad  luck  can't  continue.  I  must 
win !  I  will  win  next  time ! "  He  could 
not  stop.  It  is  called  "  gambler's  fever." 

He  could  not  sleep ;  he  was  neglecting 
his  studies.  He  had  used  up  all  his  allow 
ance  of  "  absences."  He  did  not  mind  that, 
but  he  had  within  these  few  weeks  lost — 
he  would  not  allow  himself  to  reckon  how 
much  !  He  had  borrowed  from  the  fellows, 
and  he  had  been  steadily  drawing  from  the 
bank  the  precious  money  for  which  he  had 
worked  so  hard,  and  which  meant  so  much 
more  to  him  than  money  meant  to  boys 
with  monthly  allowances  from  home.  One 
morning  he  made  out  another  check  to  his 
own  order.  "This  is  positively  the  last 
time,"  he  said  to  himself.  He  had  said  that 
before,  but  this  time  it  was  true. 

That  night  he  began  to  lose  with  the  first 

hand.     He  laughed,  he  played  recklessly,  he 

169 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

lost.  He  went  home,  and  found  a  letter  in 
his  pocket  while  undressing  which  he  had 
forgotten  to  open,  in  hurrying  to  the  game. 
This  letter  said,  "  We  beg  leave  to  call  your 
attention  to  the  fact  that  your  account  seems 
to  be  overdrawn  to  the  amount  of  seventy- 
five  cents."  It  was  from  the  Princeton 
Bank. 

This  meant  that  William  Young  owned 
not  a  cent  in  the  world,  and  was  a  debtor 
even  to  the  bank  besides  owing  various  sums 
to  his  companions.  He  was  bankrupt.  It 
was  pretty  bad.  But  that  was  not  the  worst 
of  it.  That  was  not  the  reason  he  stood  by 
the  table  letting  his  lamp  smoke  while  he 
kept  staring  at  the  letter  in  his  hand. 

He  had  kept  with  his  personal  account 
the  fund  of  his  class,  and  every  cent  of  it 
was  gone  with  the  rest.  He  had  held  it  in 
trust  as  treasurer.  It  had  amounted  to 
something  over  one  hundred  dollars. 

But  he  had  drawn  it  out  unconsciously  ? 
No ;  he  knew  he  had  used  all  his  own 
money  long  ago. 

But  surely  he  had  meant  to  return  what 
170 


SERVING  TWO   MASTERS 

he  had  borrowed  from  the  class  fund  ?  Oh, 
yes  ;  but  this  kind  of  "  borrowing  "  is  called 
embezzlement — an  ugly  word.  It  really 
means  theft  and  breach  of  trust  combined. 

Young  could  not  take  it  all  in  at  first. 
For  awhile  he  stood  there,  saying  to  him 
self,  "  Isn't  it  funny  this  letter  was  in  my 
pocket  all  the  evening  while  I  was  playing 
—isn't  it  funny  ?  " 

Then  he  looked  up,  sniffed,  and  said, 
41  That  lamp  is  smoking."  He  turned  it 
down,  and  stared  at  the  flame  for  nearly  a 
minute.  Then  suddenly  he  blew  it  out,  and 
was  alone  in  the  darkness. 

Oh,  yes,  it  was  all  true.  There  was  no 
way  of  getting  out  of  it.  He  realized  it  all 
now  vividly.  He,  William  Young,  a  mem 
ber  of  the  church,  son  of  honest  old  Farmer 
Young,  was  a  gambler  and — yes,  he  might 
just  as  well  call  it  by  its  right  name  —  a 
thief ! 

He  was  the  one  of  whom  the  others  at 
home  used  to  stand  in  awe  because  he  was 
going  East  for  a  higher  education.  He  was 
the  one  for  whom  the  minister  predicted 

171 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

such  great  things.  He  was  the  one  who 
had  his  tuition  remitted  in  consideration  of 
"  high  moral  character."  He  was  the  one 
whose  letters  from  college  were  read  aloud 
at  the  sewing  society  by  a  proud  little 
mother,  who  thought  he  was  the  best  son 
in  the  world. 

Why  hadn't  he  stayed  at  home  and  re 
mained  an  honest  man,  working  hard  in  the 
bank  or  as  a  plain  farmer,  like  good  little 
Charlie  ?  Oh,  how  did  he  ever  sink  so  low  ? 
If  he  only  had  a  chance  to  do  it  all  over 
again — if  he  could  only  wake  up  and  find  it 
all  a  dream — if  he  could  only  wipe  it  all  out 
of  existence,  how  joyous  and  sunny  would 
be  life  and  duty  and  hard  work  again ! 

But  it  wasn't  a  dream  !  It  was  all  very 
real,  indeed.  None  of  it  could  be  wiped 
out.  It  was  all  there  and  staring  him  in  the 
face,  real,  horribly  real.  And  that  was  not 
all ;  matters  could  not  remain  only  as  bad  as 
this.  He  was  an  out-and-out  embezzler, 
liable  to  be  found  out  and  exposed  as  such 
at  any  moment — and  then  what  ? 

Leave  college  with  a  disgraced  name — but 

172 


SERVING   TWO   MASTERS 

that  would  not  be  all.  The  news  would  go 
home;  it  would  get  there  before  he  did. 
Everyone  in  the  county  would  hear  it,  and 
talk  about  him.  Some  of  them  would  laugh 
and  sneer,  and  say,  "  Too  bad  !  "  and  really 
be  secretly  glad. 

Perhaps  the  authorities  would  send  and — 
it  made  him  weak  and  sick  to  think  of  it 
— have  him  arrested — by  an  officer  of  the 
law — and  put  in  jail.  This  would  kill  his 
honest,  old  gray-bearded  father.  And  as  for 
his  mother — but  that  hurt  too  much  !  He 
shut  his  eyes ;  he  simply  would  not  let  him 
self  think  of  that. 

But  what  could  he  do  ?  Time  was  flying. 
Just  now  he  had  heard  Old  North  strike 
four  in  the  dark,  silent  distance — good  Old 
North,  on  whose  steps  he  had  hoped  to  sing 
as  a  Senior  some  day.  Every  moment 
brought  him  nearer  to  ruin.  Something 
must  be  done. 

He  took  hold  of  his  head  to  quiet  its 
buzzing.  "  It  will  do  no  good  to  think 
about  it  any  more,"  he  said  aloud.  "  Act, 
act,  act — you  must ! " 

173 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

First,  he  spent  a  few  bitter  moments  on 
his  knees  by  the  bed.  It  is  no  one's  concern 
what  he  said  to  God.  Then  he  arose,  quite 
calmly  struck  a  match,  and  with  an  almost 
steady  hand  lighted  the  lamp.  Then  very 
deliberately,  in  a  matter-of-fact  way,  he  drew 
up  the  rocking-chair  so  that  the  light  would 
come  over  his  left  shoulder.  He  dragged 
over  another  chair  to  put  his  feet  upon.  He 
sat  down.  He  did  a  little  figuring  at  first  on 
the  envelope  in  his  hand.  Then  he  opened 
his  trigonometry  and  studied  furiously  until 
chapel-time.  There  was,  you  see,  good  stuff 
in  Will  Young  yet. 

It  would  do  no  good  to  tell  himself  any 
longer  how  low  he  had  fallen  ;  but  it  would 
do  a  great  deal  of  good  to  win  the  Freshman 
First  Honor  prize ;  and  he  had  no  time  to  lose. 

To  win  was  not  a  mere  ambition  now — it 
was  a  grim  necessity.  It  was  the  one  way  of 
keeping  from  being  disgraced  in  the  eyes  of 
the  world  as  deeply  as  he  was  in  his  own  and 
God's. 

The  prize  would  not  come  until  com 
mencement.  Before  that  time  the  class 

174 


SERVING  TWO   MASTERS 

might  vote  to  use  its  money.  They  might 
instruct  their  "  honorable  treasurer  "  to  ex 
pend  the  funds  on  decorations  and  a  brass 
band,  as  was  sometimes  done  at  the  close  of 
examinations  to  celebrate  their  Sophomore- 
hood  ;  and  what  would  he  do  then  !  He  de 
cided  that  he  must  not  let  himself  think 
about  that  now.  It  made  his  heart  stop  so 
short  it  fairly  hurt ;  besides,  it  interrupted  his 
work. 

He  had  figured  it  all  out  in  his  neat  busi 
nesslike  hand  on  the  envelope.  On  one  side, 
under  assets,  he  wrote,  "  Freshman  prize,  if 
won,  $200;"  on  the  other  side  the  follow 
ing  list : 

The  Princeton  Bank  overdraw $o  75 

Henry  Powelton,  borrowed 10  oo 

Carey  H.  Lee,  borrowed 25  oo 

William  Sinclair  Drew 23  35 

The  class  of  Ninety-blank  debt 117  20 

Total $176  30 

Two  hundred  dollars  would  "square" 
him,  and  just  leave  enough  to  buy  a  ticket 
back  to  the  old  farm — that  is,  if  he  wanted 
to  go  there. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   LAST   CHANCE 

MANY  times  that  huge,  dark  thing  in  the 
background  of  his  thoughts  jumped  into  the 
foreground  and  interrupted  his  work ;  but 
he  accomplished  a  good  deal.  He  felt  a  glow 
of  hope.  It  was  only  ten  days  to  the  ex 
aminations,  but  it  had  only  been  during  the 
past  month  of  madness  that  he  had  neglected 
his  studies.  He  could  soon  make  that  up. 

Just  as  he  started  for  chapel,  he  suddenly 
began  to  wonder  if  he  had  been  mistaken 
about  that  prize.  Wasn't  it  only  $100  after 
all  ?  He  took  down  a  catalogue  and  looked 
it  up.  He  was  right,  the  prize  was  $200. 

"  A  prize  of  $200,  part  of  the  income  of 
the  J.  S.  K.  fund  ; "  but  what  was  this  ? — 
"  To  be  paid  in  quarterly  instalments  during 
the  following  year  "  !  He  had  never  noticed 
that  before.  For  a  moment  it  made  him  feel 
176 


THE   LAST   CHANCE 

sick  at  the  stomach.  Then  he  decided  that 
it  was  not  so  bad  after  all,  for  if  he  only  won 
the  prize  he  could  borrow  money  on  the  cer 
tificate  of  it  that  would  be  presented  the 
winner  at  commencement. 

For  the  first  day  or  two  the  club  guyed  him 
for  turning  poler,  and  they  thought  his  se 
rious  and  grave  demeanor  was  very  funny 
when  he  declined  to  join  with  them  in  their 
pursuits.  At  first  he  paid  no  attention  to 
,  their  jeers  ;  he  had  no  time.  Then  came  the 
day  he  got  angry  and  said.  "  It  makes  no  dif 
ference  to  me  what  you  fellows  think.  I've 
quit  my  foolishness  for  good,  and  that's  all 
there  is  to  it.  Now  let  me  alone." 

He  struck  the  table  a  heavy  blow,  and 
looked  as  if  he  meant  everything  he  said ; 
and  no  one  felt  inclined  to  guy  him  again. 
He  looked  like  the  old  Deacon  who  had 
done  up  Ballard. 

"  The  Deacon  must  have  an  attack  of  R. 
E.  Morse,"  Billy  Drew  said,  as  he  left  the 
room. 

"  I  think  he's  pretty  hard  hit  financially," 
said  Lucky  Lee  who  had  been  pretty  hard 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

hit  of  late  himself.  "  He's  working  his 
way  through  college,  you  know.  I  wish  he 
hadn't  lost  so  much  money." 

14  He  had  no  business  playing,  then,"  said 
Powelton. 

"  I  respect  him  for  stopping,  anyway,"  said 
Todd,  who  seldom  played  cards  ;  recently  he 
had  not  played  at  all ;  he  had  been  doing 
some  studying,  "  just  for  fun,"  he  said. 

"  So  do  I,"  said  Lee,  in  a  low  voice,  and 
the  others  agreed — in  lower  voices. 

Meanwhile,  Young  was  studying  as  if  his 
life  depended  upon  it,  and  the  strain  was 
telling.  He  had  lost  twenty-four  pounds 
since  the  football  season. 

The  fellows  saw  nothing  of  him  now  ex 
cept  at  meals,  where  he  kept  his  white  face 
turned  down  to  the  book  beside  his  plate. 
They  had  left  off  guying  him,  and  were  wor 
rying  about  him  instead. 

They  began  saying :  "  See  here,  old  man, 
youVe  got  to  quit  this.  You'll  kill  yourself 
if  you  keep  on  this  way.  The  prize  isn't 
worth  it."  But  it  did  no  good.  Finally  a 
number  of  them  came  up  to  his  room  one 

178 


THE   LAST   CHANCE 

evening  to  see  what  they  could  do  about  it. 
They  were  headed  by  Lucky  Lee. 

"  I  wish  you  would  let  me  alone,"  was  all 
that  Young  would  say.  "  I've  simply  got  to 
win  that  prize." 

"  Why  have  you  got  to  ?  "  asked  Lucky, 
in  his  nice,  refined  voice. 

At  that  Young  only  smiled  queerly,  and 
turned  to  the  table  where  his  books  were. 

"  See  here,  you  old  chump,"  said  Lucky. 
" 1  believe  you've  got  a  notion — say,  fellows, 
the  Deacon's  got  a  notion  that  just  because 
he  owes  some  of  us  a  couple  of  dollars  or  so 
we  are  in  a  hurry  to  be  paid  back.  If  he 
thinks  that,  he's  an  old  ass,  isn't  he,  fellows  ?" 

"  Why,  certainly,"  said  Powelton. 

"  Thank  you,"  said  Young,  curtly  ;  "  but 
as  I  said  before,  I  intend  to  square  up  at 
commencement." 

"  Why,  we  can  get  along  just  as  well  till 
next  fall,"  Lucky  went  on,  although  he  had 
pawned  some  of  his  clothes  as  well  as  his 
bicycle  last  week.  "  In  fact,  if  you're  worry 
ing  about  it,  why — well — they  were  gam 
bling  debts,  Will,  and " 

179 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

41  Lucky,"  said  Young,  flushing,  "that's  no 

way  to  talk.  I'm  an  honest  man  and  " 

then  he  stopped  suddenly;  he  was  not  an 
honest  man,  and  this  was  the  first  time  he 
had  been  called  "  Will  "  since  he  left  home, 
and  home  was  what  he  hated  most  of  all  to 
think  of  in  these  days,  and  this  was  Lucky 
Lee,  who  never  would  have  had  gambling 
debts,  if  it  had  not  been  for  him,  and  whose 

kind  mother  he  had  promised Altogether 

he  felt  very  queer  and  wrought  up,  and  for  a 
wild  moment  he  had  a  notion  to  tell  them 
all  about  it,  and  make  a  clean  breast  of  it. 

If  he  had  done  so  they  might  have  helped 
him  out  and  sworn  secrecy  ;  but  Young  was 
not  the  sort  that  could  do  it.  "  Please  go 
away,  fellows,  and  leave  me  alone.  You're 
mighty  good,  but — you  don't  understand," 
he  said. 

They  could  see  something  was  troubling 
him  greatly.  They  did  go  away,  and  they 
did  not  understand,  but  they  felt  very  sorry. 
After  that  Todd,  without  telling  the  reason, 
left  off  studying  hard  and  took  to  rambling 

in  the  woods  again. 

1 80 


THE    LAST    CHANCE 

"Aren't  you  going  to  try  for  the  prize, 
then  ?  "  they  asked  him. 

"  I  wouldn't  stand  any  chance  against 
Young,"  he  answered.  But  the  others  were 
not  so  sure  about  that. 

Meanwhile  every  hour  brought  final  ex 
aminations  sixty  minutes  nearer,  and  Young, 
all  alone  in  his  little  bake-oven  of  a  room, 
was  studying  as  probably  no  student  had 
ever  studied  in  that  old  room  before.  Some- 
times  he  felt  that  even  his  powerful  consti 
tution  would  not  stand  the  strain  much 
longer ;  but  he  could  not  afford  to  break 
down  or  die  until  after  commencement,  until 
after  disgrace  had  been  averted  from  his 
family  name.  It  was  that  thought  which 
kept  his  heavy  eyelids  open. 

Examination  week  was  like  a  long,  hide 
ous  nightmare. 

There  were  tasks  that  seemed  superhuman 
to  perform,  and  with  them  the  sickening 
dread  that  he  could  not  perform  them. 
When  the  last  paper  was  finished  and  handed 
in  he  had  a  horrible  conviction  that  he  had 
lost  the  prize.  He  felt  sure  of  it 

181 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

But  he  could  not  be  sure  until  commence 
ment  day  itself,  and  before  that  came  four 
days  of  preliminary  commencement  gayety. 
Each  one  of  these  contained  for  Young 
twenty-four  hours  of  suspense,  and  these 
were  worse  than  examination  days — there 
was  nothing  to  take  his  mind  off  what  he 
did  not  want  to  think  about.  He  could  not 
sleep.  His  nerves  were  used  up  ;  and  every 
body  else  was  so  happy  ! 

The  campus  was  bright  with  hundreds  of 
attractive  girls  in  summer  costumes,  and 
alive  with  rollicking  old  graduates  holding 
noisy  reunions.  But  even  at  the  baseball 
game,  when  the  nine  was  beating  Yale  and 
everyone  else  was  crazy  with  exultant  joy, 
Young  was  saying  to  himself  :  "  How  should 
I  break  the  news  to  mother  ?  Should  I  let 
matters  take  their  course,  or — what  are  they 
all  cheering  for  now?  Oh,  I  see,  Cap  has 
made  another  hit ! " 

The  worst  of  it  was  that  he  had  no  one  to 
take  him  out  of  himself.  Nearly  all  his 
classmates  and  all  his  intimates  were  packing 
up  and  going  home,  as  Freshmen  usually  do, 

182 


THE   LAST  CHANCE 

without  waiting  for  commencement.  Luckily 
they  had  not  voted  to  celebrate  their  Sopho- 
morehood!  He  wandered  about  all  alone; 
and  all  alone  he  went  in  to  hear  his  fate 
decided  on  commencement  morning. 

Near  the  door  he  stood,  squeezed  in  beside 
some  graduates  he  had  never  seen  before, 
who  wondered  why  this  long,  gaunt  under 
graduate  started  so  when  the  clerk  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees  arose  and  began  to  an 
nounce  the  fellowships  and  prizes. 

The  awards  were  read  from  a  long  list  in 
the  clerk's  hand,  and  after  each  announce 
ment  there  was  a  cheer  from  the  members  of 
the  literary  society  to  which  the  victor  be 
longed.  It  delayed  matters  so.  Sometimes 
they  cheered  several  times.  Then  the  clerk 
cleared  his  throat  and  went  on  slowly. 

At  last  he  came  down  toward  the  end  of 
the  list. 

"Now,  then,"  said  Young,  bracing  him 
self.  "  I  know  I  am  going  to  lose."  He 
did  not  dare  look  up.  Just  in  front  of  him 
sat  a  good-looking  girl.  He  saw  her  put  her 
pretty  orange-and-black-bordered  programme 

183 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF   A    FRESHMAN 

to  her  lips  and  suppress  a  yawn  while  the 
loud,  monotonous  voice  of  the  clerk  said, 
"  The  Freshman  First  Honor  prize  awarded 
to  J.  Milton  Barrows,  of  Pennsylvania." 

Young  stood  perfectly  still.  He  did  not 
move  a  muscle.  He  heard  the  loud  cheer 
ing.  He  heard  a  man  behind  him  say, 
"  Well !  well ! "  He  heard  the  band  strike  up 
a  lively  air.  Still  looking  at  the  girl,  he  saw 
her  begin  to  beat  time  to  the  music  with  her 
programme  against  her  pursed  lips. 

Then  he  shut  his  eyes  tight  for  a  moment 
and  asked  himself :  "  What  was  it  I  was 
going  to  do  ?  I  cannot  remember  somehow. 
What  was  it  ?  Shall— shall  I  telegraph " 

In  a  few  minutes  the  valedictorian  had 
finished  his  oration,  then  the  benediction 
was  pronounced,  and  the  audience  flocked 
out  laughing  and  talking  while  the  band 
played  with  all  its  might.  Commencement 
was  over,  and  the  college  year  was  a  matter 
of  history. 

A  few  hours  later  Young  was  speeding 
across  the  country  at  the  rate  of  ever  so 

184 


THE   LAST   CHANCE 

many  miles  an  hour  toward  the  old  prairie 
farm,  toward  the  home  he  had  disgraced. 

He  did  not  know  why  he  was  going  home, 
unless  it  was  because  the  watch  he  pawned 
brought  just  the  right  amount  of  money. 
Instinct  made  him  do  it,  perhaps. 

As  the  train  started  off  down  the  grade  he 
stood  on  the  rear  platform,  and  looked  back 
at  the  green  campus  and  the  dear  old  brown 
building. 

"  Perhaps,"  he  said  to  himself,  "  perhaps  in 
time  they'll  forget  that  there  ever  was  a 
fellow  named  '  Deacon '  Young." 

Then  the  car  turned  the  curve,  and  the 
college  was  hidden  from  view. 


CHAPTER   XIV 


"HOME  FROM  COLLEGE" 


SHE  was  standing  beside  the  neatly  paint 
ed  horse-block,  waiting  to  welcome  her  boy. 
Will  had  spied  her  from  the  road. 

As  the  buggy  turned  in  through  the  gate 
he  began  to  brace  himself  for  meeting  her. 
This  was  going  to  be  harder,  he  knew,  than 
had  been  the  meeting  at  the  railroad  station 
a  little  while  before,  with  his  father,  whose 
honest  old  eyes  had  looked  at  him  so  search- 
ingly. 

He  was  coming  nearer  and  nearer.  She 
was  smiling.  It  was  the  same  motherly  smile 
he  had  known  he  would  see.  Now  she  was 
speaking  his  name.  The  next  moment  he 
was  out  of  the  buggy,  and  she  was  kissing 
him  just  as  when  he  was  an  innocent  little 
boy.  She  was  frightened  at  her  son's  pale, 
haggard  face,  but  she  did  not  want  him  to 

1 86 


THE   MEETING 
I  don't  know,  mother,"  he  said  slowly,  a  I  oon't  know.    .  .  ."—Page  187. 


"HOME   FROM    COLLEGE" 

know  it,  and  only  said,  patting  his  cheek 
laughingly,  "  Why  didn't  you  take  better  care 
of  yourself,  child  ?  " 

They  were  walking  up  the  path.  Will 
looked  down  at  her.  The  tears  were  forming 
in  the  little  mother's  eyes.  He  looked  away 
again.  "  I  don't  know,  mother,"  he  said, 
slowly,  "  I  don't  know  why  I  didn't  take 
better  care  of  myself." 

"  There,  don't  talk.  You  must  rest  after 
your  long  journey.  Keep  still  now.  You 
can  tell  me  all  about  everything  later  on." 
They  opened  the  screen  door  and  went  in. 

Even  Mr.  Young  had  been  alarmed  when 
he  saw  his  son  step  off  the  train.  At  least  he 
treated  him  very  considerately  and  said,  as  he 
shook  his  hand  :  "  I  guess  you've  been  study 
ing  too  hard  there  at  school,  ain't  you  ?  '  All 
work  and  no  play '  —  you  know  the  rest 
of  it." 

Will  dropped  his  eyes  as  he  thought  of  the 
kind  of  playing  he  had  been  doing.  Then 
he  said,  abruptly  :  "  Well,  I'll  have  plenty  of 
time  to  get  well  in,"  looked  up  the  street  and 
remarked  that  everything  seemed  the  same. 

187 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

"  Yes,  everything's  the  same  with  us/'  his 
father  replied,  unhitching  the  horse. 

"  Hello,  Molly,"  Will  said  to  the  mare, 
"  do  you  remember  me  ?  " 

He  was  embarrassed  in  his  father's  pres 
ence,  and  Mr.  Young  seemed  to  notice  it,  for 
as  they  got  into  the  buggy  he  said,  in  an 
uneasy  manner:  "  Mother  got  your  telegram, 
but  I  had  to  come  to  town  anyway,  so  I 
thought  I  might  just  as  well  drive  you  out 
home  myself.  Had  a  pleasant  trip?" 

Indeed,  his  father,  who  had  never  once 
written  him  a  letter  during  the  nine  months' 
absence,  was  the  last  one  Will  expected  to 
meet  at  the  station,  but  that  was  not  what 
caused  Will's  constraint.  It  was  the  queer 
searching  way  he  looked  at  him  every  now 
and  then. 

"Could  he  have  heard  about  it!"  Will 
kept  asking  himself.  "  No,  he  cant  know. 
If  he  knew — if  he  knew,  he  would  be  taking 
me  to  jail  instead  of  home.  He  would  say  it 
served  me  right  for  going  against  his  wishes." 

At  supper-time  his  father  and  his  brother 
Charlie  came  in  from  the  cornfields  together. 

iM 


"HOME   FROM   COLLEGE" 

"  Hope  you'll  bring  us  rain,"  said  Mr.  Young. 
"We  need  it."  Charlie  was  brown  and  big, 
and  he  gave  Will's  hand  a  hearty  grip  and 
said,  "Glad  to  see  you  back,  Will,  blamed 
if  I  ain't." 

Charlie  never  had  ambitions  for  higher 
education.  "  Lucky  Charlie ! "  thought  Will, 
remembering  how  he  used  to  look  down  on 
him. 

"They  must  make  you  study  a  lot,  though!" 
Charlie  added,  looking  at  Will's  face. 

Mr.  Young  disappeared  for  a  few  minutes 
into  the  next  room;  when  he  returned  he 
interrupted  the  conversation  with,  "  By  the 
way,  mother,  Will  says  he  don't  think  he'll 
go  back  there  to  school  any  more." 

Mrs.  Young  did  not  want  the  matter  dis 
cussed  just  now,  for  she  saw  a  pained  look 
come  over  Will's  face  at  the  mention  of  it. 
"  Whatever  he  does,"  she  said,  in  her  bright, 
quick  manner,  "  he  must  get  well  and  strong 
and  happy  again.  Cheer  up,  Will,  cheer  up, 
look  happy — my  goodness !  just  see  his  face," 
she  went  on  laughing.  "  Don't  you  know 

you're  home,  anyway,  boy  ?  " 

189 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

Yes,  he  was  home,  anyway.  But  what  a 
way  it  was ;  not  very  much  like  the  proud 
homecoming  he  had  pictured  long  ago. 

Mr.  Young  did  not  like  to  be  switched 
off  the  subject.  He  went  on,  in  a  queer  tone  : 
"  Yes,  I  thought  you'd  come  around  to  my 
way  of  thinking.  I  thought  you'd  get  tired 
of  putting  yourself  through  college,  as  you 
called  it.  I  ain't  surprised,  not  a  bit." 

Will  did  not  feel  piqued  or  indignant.  He 
only  asked  himself  how  much  longer  he 
would  wait  before  telling  them  all  that  he, 
William  Young,  son  of  his  father,  member 
of  the  church,  and  the  boy  who  had  his  tu 
ition  remitted  in  consequence  of  a  "  high 
moral  character,"  was  a  gambler  and  a  thief, 
and  was  liable  to  be  exposed  as  such  at  any 
moment.  Even  now  at  this  hour  somebody 
there  in  the  East  might  be  making  inquiries 
as  to  his  whereabouts. 

This  load  was  becoming  more  than  he 
could  bear.  Why  not  tell  them  all,  right 
then  and  there,  and  have  it  over  with  ? 
"  Listen,  father,"  said  Will,  his  voice  break 
ing  a  little.  "You  little  understand  the 

190 


"HOME   FROM   COLLEGE" 

meaning  of  my  actionsc     Listen,  everybody. 
I  have  something  important  to  say." 

44  Shissh,  Will,  keep  quiet,  you're  nervous," 
interrupted  his  mother.  "  Father,  don't  let 
the  poor  boy  try  to  talk.  He's  sick.  He's 
all  wrought  up;  look  at  him." 

"  But  I  must  explain — I  will  explain. 
You  all  must  know.  Now  listen  :  the  rea 
son  I'm  not  going  back — the  reason  I  had 
to  study  so " 

4<  Keep  still,  Will,"  said  his  father,  in  a 
grave  tone;  "you  needn't  go  on.  I  know 
all  about  it." 

Will's  heart  stood  still. 

"  You  know  all  about  it,  father  ?" 

44  Yes,  the  minister  told  us  how  hard  you 
were  working  for  the  prize.  And  we  read 
in  the  Chicago  papers  that  another  boy  won 
it " 

44  Oh,  you  don't  understand  ;  you  don't 
know  why  I  needed  to  win  it.  You  don't 
know  anything  about  it — anything  about  it." 

44  Yes,  yes,  I  do,  Will,"  said  Mr.  Young, 
fumbling  in  his  pocket  for  something,  44yes, 
I  do." 

191 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

Mrs.  Young  put  in  excitedly :  "  It  was 
because  you  had  to  have  the  money  to  go 
back  next  year.  That  was  the  reason  you 
worked  yourself  nearly  into  the  grave  and 
wrote  such  short,  irregular  letters  home 
and " 

"  Now,  mother,  keep  still,"  interrupted 
Mr.  Young.  "  I  have  something  to  say." 
He  dropped  his  eyes  as  though  ashamed. 
He  had  taken  out  of  his  pocket  a  slip  of 
paper.  There  was  some  printing  on  it  and 
some  blank  places  filled  in  with  writing. 
He  cleared  his  throat  in  the  way  he  was 
accustomed  to  do  when  he  got  up  in  prayer- 
meeting.  "You  had  to  have  the  money. 
It  was  a  necessity.  You  worked  hard  for  it, 
but  you  missed  it.  And  I  thought,  seeing 
you  missed  the  prize  there  at  school,  I  would 
show  my  appreciation  of  your  efforts  there 
at  school,  that — now,  Will,  take  this  and 
stop  looking  at  me  in  that  way.  You  done 
your  best.  Now  you  won't  have  to  change 
your  plans.  I  hate  to  see  people  change 
their  plans." 

His  father  had  put  the  slip  of  paper  in  his 

192 


"HOME    FROM   COLLEGE" 

hand.  Will  looked  at  it.  It  was  a  check 
drawn  on  the  Farmers'  National  Bank.  It 
said,  "  Pay  to  the  order  of  William  Young 
Two  Hundred  Dollars  ($200)."  What  did 
it  all  mean  ? 

It  meant  that  the  obstinate  will  of  good 
old  Farmer  Young,  that  could  not  be  budged 
by  the  arguments  of  the  minister  or  bent  by 
the  coaxing  of  his  wife,  had  finally  been 
melted  away  by  his  own  full  heart  at  seeing 
this  poor  sick  boy  of  his,  who  bore  the  marks 
of  having  struggled  so  pluckily  and  so  dis- 
couragingly  to  earn  for  himself  what  his 
father  had  refused  to  grant.  Also  it  meant 
that  Will  Young  could  lift  his  head  once 
more,  a  free  man. 

"  Why,  where  are  you  going,  Will  ?"  asked 
his  mother.  He  had  got  up  from  the  table. 

"  I'm  not  hungry,"  he  said,  in  a  strange 
voice  ;  "  I'm  going  up  to  my  room.  I'll  be 
down  soon."  Then  as  he  opened  the  door 
he  said,  without  turning  around  :  "  I  don't 
deserve  this,  father.  I  can't  tell  you  just 
now  how  little  I  deserve  it,  but  I'm  going 
to  take  it."  The  door  closed. 

193 


THE   ADVENTURES   OF  A   FRESHMAN 

"  What  on  earth's  the  matter  with  the 
boy?"  said  Mrs.  Young,  sighing.  "I  sup 
pose  it's  because  he  takes  losing  that  prize 
so  to  heart.  He's  too  conscientious.  Don't 
deserve  it ! — nonsense  ! " 

When  Will  came  down  he  looked  better. 

"  Did  Charlie  say  he  was  going  to  drive  to 
town,"  he  asked. 

"  Yes,"  said  his  m  )ther.  "  But  you  don't 
want " 

"  No,  but  I've  got  some  letters  here  I'd 
like  to  go  East  the  first  thing  in  the  morn 
ing."  And  the  next  morning  they  were 
going  East  as  fast  as  the  United  States 
mail-cars  could  carry  them. 

One  of  them  was  to  the  Princeton  Bank, 
and  it  contained  the  check  for  $200,  and  an 
apology  for  overdrawing  his  account  the 
month  previous,  which  was  "  not  likely  to 
happen  again,"  he  said. 

The  other  contained  checks  also,  drawn  on 
that  very  bank  for  various  amounts  to  the 
order  of  Carey  H.  Lee  and  the  rest,  whose 
home  addresses  he  had  looked  up  in  the  col 
lege  catalogue. 

i94 


"HOME    FROM   COLLEGE" 

And  then  he  had  the  first  calm  full  night's 
sleep  in  over  a  month  and  came  down  to 
breakfast  singing  "The  Orange  and  the 
Black,"  and  all  the  family  thought  it  a  "real 
pretty  song,"  and  did  not  know  that  Will 
sang  it  to  a  tune  of  his  own. 

He  felt  like  a  new  man.     Perhaps  he  was. 

"Father,"  said  Mrs.  Young,  "look  at 
Will ;  he's  better  already.  I  knew  my  cook 
ing  and  a  little  home  comfort  would  do 
worlds  for  him.  And  I  guess,"  she  added,  in 
Mr.  Young's  ear,  "you  cheered  him  up  more 
by  giving  him  that  money,  father." 

Mr.  Young  felt  that  he  had  been  pretty 
generous,  but  he  only  growled. 

They  did  not  know  the  real  reason  Will 
was  so  exuberant  this  bright  sunny  morning. 

Was  it  necessary  for  them  to  know  ?  That 
was  one  thing  left  to  worry  about :  whether 
it  would  be  right  to  overwhelm  his  parents 
by  telling  them  of  what  their  son  had  been 
through,  or  would  it  be  wrong  to  keep  on 
taking  their  love  and  sympathy  (as  it  seemed 
he  had  received  his  father's  check)  on  false 
pretences  ?  He  kept  on  being  perplexed  un- 
195 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

til  he  finally  confessed  his  whole  story  to  the 
minister  and  asked  him  what  to  do  about  it. 

The  minister,  in  his  straightforward  way, 
asked,  "  Have  you  confessed  it  to  God, 
Will?" 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Will,  dropping  his  eyes. 

"And  has  He  forgiven  you  ?" 

Will  paused  a  moment.  "I  think  He  has 
now." 

"  Then  I  think  that  is  enough.  In  one 
sense  it  is  certainly  deceiving  them  not  to  tell 
them,  but  I  think  it  is  the  lesser  of  two  evils. 
It  would  do  little  or  no  good  to  tell  your  good 
old  parents.  It  would  only  grieve  them  as 
much  as  it  would  amaze  them.  You  can 
pay  back  what  you  owe  your  parents  in  love 
and  kindness  as  well  as  in  money.  Don't 
you  think  so?" 

Will  thought  so  and  he  made  up  his  mind 
to  try. 

It  became  a  matter  of  comment  among 
the  neighbors  the  way  Will  Young,  whom 
they  were  inclined  to  look  at  sceptically  since 
"he  went  East  to  college,"  was  pitching  in 

and  working  harder  than  any  hired  man  on 

196 


"HOME    FROM    COLLEGE" 

his  father's  place  and,  what  was  more  sur 
prising,  seeming  to  enjoy  it ;  they  did  not 
know  quite  what  to  make  of  it.  He  was 
paying  back  the  $200. 

It  surprised  his  father  also  and  pleased 
him,  and  so  did  Will's  respectful  manner  and 
his  simple  boyish  endeavors  to  carry  out  all 
his  wishes.  He  was  trying  to  pay  back  the 
other  debt  also. 

When  the  fall  came  again  Mr.  Young 
hated  more  than  ever  to  have  him  leave,  but 
this  time,  as  he  told  Will's  mother,  he  would 
fix  it,  he  guessed,  so  Will  wouldn't  have  to 
work  himself  to  a  skeleton. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   END   OF   IT 

"  HELLO,  here  comes  Deacon  Young  with 
a  brand  new  orange-and-black  blazer  on  ! " 

"Yea-a-a,"  interrupted  one  fellow  in  a 
loud,  shrill  voice,  and  the  others  all  joined  in 
and  yelled,  u  Yea-a,  Deacon  ! "  and  ran  at  him 
and  pounded  him  on  the  shoulders,  jumped 
on  his  back  and  made  other  signs  of  pleasure 
at  seeing  a  classmate  once  more,  while  they 
asked  him  what  kind  of  a  vacation  he  had 
had,  and  told  him  he  looked  as  though  he 
had  been  training  for  football  all  summer. 
Will  laughed  and  told  how  he  had  trained. 

"  It  must  be  great  to  work  on  a  farm,"  said 
Lee,  punching  the  Deacon's  shoulders. 

"  Come  on,"  one  of  them  shouted,  "  we're 
taking  a  walk  about  the  old  place  to  see  how 
everything  looks.     Let's  gather  a  crowd — 
Ninety-blank  this  way  ! " 
198 


THE   END   OF   IT 

They  shouted  the  old  cry  in  concert  and 
started  off  together. 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  this  year, 
Deacon  ?  "  It  was  Todd  who  happened  to 
be  marching  next  to  Young. 

"  How  do  you  mean  ?" 

"  Well,  are  you  going  to  pole  or  loaf  or  be 
a  dead-game  or  what  ?  " 

"  Well,"  answered  Young,  "  I'm  going  to 
do  some  of  the  first  and  combine  some  foot 
ball  with  it  if  I  have  good  luck ;  but  I  am 
not  going  to  try  any  more  of  the  last.  I 
don't  know  as  I  need  tell  you  that,  Todd.' 
He  wanted  to  say  more,  but  only  frowned  as 
he  thought  of  how  hard  it  would  be  to  ac 
complish  what  he  had  resolved  to  accomplish 
with  the  club  this  year. 

Todd  said,  "  I'm  glad  you  told  me,  though. 
I  think  the  whole  club  made  a  fool  of  it 
self  last  year.  It  needs  to  take  a  big 
brace." 

Young  turned  and  looked  at  him.  Todd 
had  spoken  in  his  nsual  quiet,  careless  man 
ner,  but  Young  thought  his  words  implied 
something. 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRESHMAN 

"  Do  you  think — say,  Todd,  do  you  think 
there's  much  hope  of  its  bracing  ?  " 

"Not  unless  they're  made  to,"  laughed 
Todd.  "  Perhaps,"  he  said,  looking  the 
other  way,  "  we  can  make  'em  if  we  pull  to 
gether.  What  do  you  say,  Deacon  ?  " 

"  Let's  try,"  said  Young.  He  held  out 
his  hand. 

Todd  took  it  in  an  embarrassed  manner, 
and  then  shouted :  "Hi,  there,  you  fellows 
in  front !  Let's  go  down  to  meet  the  2. 1 7. 
There'll  be  a  lot  of  the  class  in  on  that  train. 
Start  up  a  song,  somebody." 

They  all  marched  off  across  the  campus 
singing,  with  loud  happy  voices : 

"Here's  to  Ninety-blank — 
Drink  her  down — drink  her  down." 

Arms  were  thrown  carelessly  over  shoul 
ders  and  perhaps  they  swaggered  a  little  as 
they  marched.  But  it  feels  very  good  to  be 
a  Sophomore,  especially  the  first  day. 

And  all  this  fraternal  joyousness,  to 
gether  with  the  superabundance  of  orange 
•oo 


THE    END   OF    IT 

and  black,  greatly  impressed  one  of  the  very 
green  Freshmen  who  happened  just  then  to 
be  scurrying  by  with  wonder  in  his  eyes. 
And  it  happened  to  be  at  about  the  same 
spot  in  the  walk  that  another  Freshman  had 
met  another  crowd  of  Sophomores  and  was 
called  "  Deacon "  for  the  first  time  in  his 
life.  But  that  was  a  whole  year  ago. 

Young  had  learned  a  good  deal  in  that 
year,  he  was  thinking.  "  Not  all  of  what 
you  are  taught  at  college,"  he  said  to  him 
self,  "comes  out  of  the  text-books — especially 
in  Freshman  year." 


SOI 


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